The story behind Sha’aban Sharada’s suspension
POLITICS DIGEST– The leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Sharada Ward has denied suspending the Member of House of Representatives from Kano Municipal, Sha’aban Ibrahim Sharada from the party.
Earlier today, a press statement was released by the Chairman of APC in Sharada ward suspending Hon. Shaaban Ibrahim Sharada from the party.
But In another letter countering the suspension and signed by 19 signatories has denied the suspension stating that it is against the constitutional provision of the party .
The letter which was read by some party executives in Sharada Ward led by Organising Secretary Huzaifa Adam Umar.
Mr. Umar added that the suspension was done solely by few members of the excos and that the majority are against the decision to suspend Shaaban because he was not given fair hearing.
“The invitation letter written by disciplinary committee was neither sent to his constituency office nor his residence but was sighted circulating on social media platforms”. Umar said.
The letter which read in parts:
“Disclaimer of Suspension and Vote of Confidence on Hon. Shaaban Ibrahim Sharada, Member House of Representatives Kano Municipal Constituency.
Sequel to the above subject matter,
Be informed that there was a letter and a video clip that was circulating on social media platforms purportedly alleged to have been issued by the disciplinary committee of the APC, Sharada ward which was signed by Alhaji Aminu Isiyaku Yusuf the committee chairman and Alhaji Isa Musa who was also purportedly to be the secretary of the committee which led to the suspension of Hon. Member Shaabam Ibrahim Sharada and the alleged letter was dated 9th of June 2021.
This letter is baseless and it has no merit. No invitation letter was served to him nor to his constituency office or any person close to him. He only saw that defective letter of invitation circulating on social media which did not indicate venue, time for the deliberation of the content of the letter.
We’re further informing the party leadership/Congress that there is another letter dated 16th of June 2021 which is also titled letter of suspension from the party APC based on the purported petition claimed to have been received on 8th of June 2021 from some members as baseless and is done based on the selfish interest of their political godfathers alleging that the Hon. Member is trying to ridicule the character of His Excellency the Executive Governor and the party executives at Ward, Local Government and State Levels for character assassination. This is baseless and uncalled for, because no time and venue have been shown to indicate something of that nature had taken place.
The people that disallowed the Hon. Member to revalidate his Membership Card of APC are the same people claiming to have suspended him from the party. All these are done to him for the massive support he has been getting and receiving from the populace of his constituency in Kano Municipal Local Government of Kano State.
We the undersigned exco-members and by the power conferred upon us by the provision of Article 11 of All Progressive Congress Constitution (as amended) as part of the party organs hereby shown our commitment and solidarity to the Hon. Sha’aban Ibrahim sharada and is still the person we are solidly casting our vote of confidence to him as per the provision of Article 9 which stipulates for the membership of any member of the party.
Therefore, Hon. Member Sha’aban Ibrahim Sharada is still a member of our great party at Sharada Ward and also the eligible member representing our constituency Kano Municipal at Federal House of Representatives.
At the end, on behalf of the majority members of the Sharada Ward Excos whose affixed their signature below: we have unanimously agreed and suspended the APC party interim chairman of Sharada Ward and replace him with Ibrahim Mu’azu (Birai) for his gross misconduct and denied the majority of the Excos of their constitutional rights, for them to be part of any decision-making processes, whereas in contrary, he unilaterally took the decision without our consent and involvement.
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However, we unanimously agreed and formed a new disciplinary committee and charged the committee to proceed and take the necessary and appropriate disciplinary and legal action against Alhaji Sani Fata Sharada caretaker, interim Chairman APC, Kano Municipal Local Government, being a member of the party from Sharada Ward, for his effort to conspire and bring disunity within the party leadership at Sharada ward for his personal and selfish interest. The names of the disciplinary committee leaders are as follows:
Mukkata Bala Tanka Tukuntawa as Chairman and Halliru Habibu (Rawi) Sharada as Secretary”.
How It Started
Sha’aban Ibrahim Sharada has been having a running battle with Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje and the party leadership in the state to the extent of ensuring that he was denied registration at the ward level this year.
This was done to frustrate the member because of his large followership across the state especially the call by youth groups on him to contest for governorship in 2023.
This large youth followers can be viewed from his emergence as a member of House of Representatives from the primary level to winning the election in 2011.
Despite the gang up by political appointees, party members within APC on the instruction of the governor, whereby, a day to election, a formal instruction from government house came out calling on all party members in Kano Municipal to vote for the then incumbent member of PDP Danburan Abubakar Nuhu against Shaaban.
He was denied the agent tags of APC by giving it to the PDP member. POLITICS DIGEST observed.
The funds that should be used for the election were not used and Shaaban was not given a kobo.
Despite that, Sharada came out victorious with a wide margin.
His votes had trippled the number of votes cast for Governor Abdullahi Ganduje in Kano Municipal.
The election result was delayed for three days in an effort to change it against Shaaban. He was the last person to be announced winner in the whole kano with a wide margin against Danburan Abubakar Nuhu.
Later, Mukhtari Ishaq Yakasai who contested in party primaries with Shaaban appealed his case at Supreme Court on the orders of the governor and judgement was given in favour of Shaaban.
Sharada’s massive empowerment on education, health and skills acquisition programmes has garnered him support in recent years.
It was obviously clear that apart from Abubakar Rimi and Kwankwaso, Shaaban was the third person that sponsored the education of the less privileged to Sudan and currently, he is planning to send more. This Paper learnt.
Looking at the significance of Kano in Nigeria’s politics, there is no local government that has consistently adhere to the politics of ideology like Kano Municipal where Shaaban comes from.
Political analysts have described the party’s crisis as a serious one that can crack the party. It is necessary for stakeholders to do everything possible in resolving this crisis before it is too late.
Just recently, the APC Buhari Support Organization has raised an alarm over discrimination, selectiveness and partiality against members of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Kano state during the party’s registration/revalidation exercise, held recently.
In a letter of complaint sighted by POLITICS DIGEST, and signed by Shehu Dalhatu, Chairman of the group, Kano branch, which was addressed to the Chairman, APC Registration Appeal Committee, the group alleged that the exercise in Kano was calculated sabotage to reduce the population of the party in the next general election.
The group also alleged that significant members of the APC Buhari Support Organization and aggrieved members of the party were excluded in the exercise in the state, saying “that made the exercise ‘uncredible’ whose outcome did not represent the actual number of APC members in Kano state where Buhari enjoyed the highest number of votes in the presidential elections.”
Some political pundits said the move may spell dome for the party in 2023 elections considering what they refer to as political alienation of APC members close to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Also, recently, a staunch supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari in Kano State, Alhaji Abdulmajid Kwamanda, created a faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Akida, splitting the party into two in the state.
At a news conference, Kwamanda, who has been championing Buhari’s ideologies since 2003 when he contested for the presidency on the platform of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP), said the state Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, and the APC state caretaker Chairman, Abdullahi Abbas, should be held responsible for the crack in the party.