APC spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, defects from party
Mr Bolaji
The national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has resigned from his position and has also defected from the party barely 24 hours after denying rumours of him doing so.
Mr Abdullahi made this known in a statement he signed on Wednesday.
Mr Abdullahi, who was reelected spokesperson for the APC at the party’s national convention last month, is a key ally of the senate president, Bukola Saraki, and was expected to quit the party. Mr Saraki defected on Tuesday.
“In view of recent political developments in the country and within the All Progressives Congress (APC), I have decided to resign my position as the National Publicity Secretary as well as my membership of the party with effect from today,” he said.
Noting he had served the party honestly and to the best of his ability, he said he in the last few days, had to endure the “flagrant usurpation of my role as the spokesman of the party in a manner that I consider unbefitting of a ruling party and inconsistent with my ethical standards”.
“I have served the APC honestly and to the best of my ability and when I stood for and won my election at the last convention; it was a keen desire to continue to do so,” Mr Abdullahi said.
“However, in a situation whereby my loyalty is constantly brought into question; my subordinates deployed to subvert my office; and my views constantly second-guessed on the basis of my political affiliation, it has become imperative for me to review my position.”
According to him since assuming office as the spokesman of the party, he tried to set a new template for public political communications in a way that departs from the vulgar abuse and verbal aggression of the recent past. He said this was seen as evidence of his lack of commitment to the party.
He said the dissolution of the Kwara state executives which he described as illegal was only one out of the many assault he had to suffer.
Mr Abdullahi said he believed as a national officer of the party, who sits in that Committee, courtesy should demand that his views be sought on a matter that concerns his state where he is directly involved.
“With this obviously presumptuous action, and the decision to appoint as chairman of caretaker committee, the same man who had emerged as the chairman from the parallel congress in my State, the NWC has taken sides, violated its oath office and subverted its own credibility as an impartial arbiter.
“Yet, these are the same people that have continued to insinuate that others are serving interests other than those of the party.
“Politics is local, and my personal stake in the issue of Kwara makes it incongruous for me to continue to sit as part of the working committee of the party. Clearly, I cannot continue to function as the spokesman of a party whose expectations of that role is incompatible with my personal principles.
“In the same token, I can no longer justify to myself that I should remain in a party which has now made it clear to the world that the political group that I belong is no longer wanted, and which has hung my membership of that group as an albatross around my neck,” he said. (Premium Times)