By Princess Simon (Bureau Chief North Central, in Minna)
About 30 members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) aspiring for various positions ahead of the coming State Congress were, on Thursday, left stranded at the party secretariat in Minna, Niger State.
This development was due to the fact that they were denied screening by the screening committee after spending over six hours waiting for their turn to be ushered in for the exercise by the committee chaired by, Alhaji Umar Shuaibu Suleja.
The Chairman of the screening committee, Umar Shuaibu Suleja, according to findings, was nowhere to be found during the exercise, as he was thought to have probably holed up at the Government House in Minna for yet unknown reason.
While the committee chairman spent almost the whole day in the government house, other members of the Committee, according to findings by NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Correspondent, also avoided those believed not to be the Governor’s candidates notwithstanding that Thursday was the final day for the exercise.
Lamenting what he termed ‘undemocratic posture of the committee’, one of the aspirants, Eli Ndace who is contesting for State APC Treasurer, accused the Governor Abubakar Sani Bello led government of not upholding transparency in the entire exercise.
“The state government is shielding the entire process of the state congress, contrary to the APC constitution and as promised by the committee. We purchased our forms at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja”.
Ndace, insisted that he and the others being denied participation in the screening be attended to or they would seek legal redress. He said it is very unfair and undemocratic for the Governor to allegedly manipulate the exercise for personal gains against the APC interest and that of the generality of the state.
Another party stalwart who spoke on the unfolding scenario, Malam Abdulazeez Ismaila Lapai, had told journalists how he had called the Chairman of the Screening Committee, Shuaibu Suleja, on phone to inquire about the ongoing screening.
Ismaila Lapai said he was shocked when the Screening Committee Chairman expressed his helplessness in doing what is expected of him. The Committee chairman, according to him, had replied that ‘his hands are tight and cannot see the aggrieved aspirants’.
Meanwhile, less than 24 hours to the emergence of new APC state officials on Saturday, October 16, 2021, across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, Abuja, everything about the screening in Niger state has been shrouded in secrecy. Journalists, also, were not carried along. NNL.
