By Amos Aar
THE Benue State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the suspension of Senator Barnabas Gemade, Prof. Terhemba Shija and six others still stands despite the setting aside of the suspension by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
Benue Stat APC chairman, Comrade Austine Agada, made the position of the state chapter of the party known on Friday while fielding questions from journalists during the swearing-in ceremony of a fact-finding and disciplinary committee set up by the state APC to interrogate the suspended members of the party and a committee constituted for the commissioning of the party Secretariat’s “remodeled” building.
While the fact-finding and disciplinary committee is headed by a former chairman of Kwande LGA, Hon. Terlumun Akputu, the committee for the commissioning of the remodeled secretariat is chaired by Comrade Terver Aginde.
Asked whether he complied with the decision of the APC NWC, Agada said the national secretariat did not write to him and as a result, he disregarded any press release flying on the social media as purportedly signed by the national publicity secretary, Barr Felix Morka.
He also stated that the decision to suspend Gemade and others was taken by a state congress of 278 ward chairmen and the state executive committee made up of working and non-working committees and therefore he has no power to “stop the flow of things”.
“You said something is flying in the media? Well, I have not seen it, I’m not aware and our party doesn’t communicate like that. Our party communicates directly to the office of the chairman and every other member of the party. You said who signed it?
When journalists answered the chairman in chorus that it was signed by the APC national publicity secretary, Barr Felix Morka, he made it clear that, he did not write to the NWC to notify the national body of the party before he announced the suspension of Gemade and others in the media.
He asked: “How would you say they signed something when we are just inaugurating the committee and we have not even forwarded to the national secretariat, the decision or resolution of the state chapter? On what premise were they acting upon? So, maybe it’s just one of these market news.
“So, on Monday or Tuesday latest, I will be communicating officially to the national secretariat on the decision of our great party in State”, he informed.
