The Borno State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said it has conducted a hitch-free ward congress that produced 8,424 grassroots party leaders without any form of conflict.
The Organising Secretary of the chapter, Auwal Hamza, told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview on phone that despite the challenges of insecurity, party members were fully mobilised to partake in the exercise.
He said ward congresses were held across the state without any hitch – a development he described as a good omen for the state especially in the area of security.
The party chieftain, who was the first publicity secretary of the APC in Borno State at the birth of the party in 2014, said “credit must be given to the state governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, for ensuring total discipline and respect for the constitution of the party during the congress”.
PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Mr Shettima had on Friday at a meeting of the APC read out the riot act to the members on the need to obey and respect the guiding principles of the APC.
The governor was reported to have also ordered all party executives and local council chairpersons to relocate to their respective council areas for the proper conduct of the congresses.
Only delegates from Marte, a local government still partly under the control of the Boko Haram, were permitted to have their ward congresses in Monguno town.
“We were able to conduct the ward congress and at the end of the day we have had a team of 27 ward executives elected from each of the 312 wards,” he said.
He explained that the party used to have 26 elected officials at the ward level which would have brought the total figure to 8,112 in the entire 312 wards in Borno State.
“But with the recent amendment in our party constitution which allows for the automatic inclusion of the disabled or physically challenged persons, we have added one extra seat in each of the wards of Borno state. So we now have 27 executives in each ward which brought the total APC ward executives to 8, 424,” he said.
