The Northern Nigeria Youth Leaders Forum has opposed calls for the resignation of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda.
Addressing a news conference in Abuja, the National President of the Forum, Murtala Gamji, said those calling for Professor Yilwatda’s resignation are not representing genuine interest of members of the All Progressives Congress.
The Forum insisted that those behind the call lacked the moral and political standing to make such a demand.
A pro-APC group, the All Progressives Congress Youth Solidarity Network (APC-YSN) —led by Comrade Danesi Momoh Prince, had on Friday issued a two-week ultimatum to Professor Nentawe Yilwatda to resign or face mass action.
The group had in a statement alleged that Prof. Nentawe had failed leadership tests in all parameters, claiming the party’s popularity was dwindling daily under his watch, thereby complicating President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election bid.
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Reacting to this development, NNYLF led by Gamji, described the group calling for the resignation of the APC Chairman as an assembly of PDP loyalists, who were on a mission to satisfy vested political interests.
He said: “That individual calling on our National Chairman to resign is not even a member of APC. We schooled together in ABU Zaria. He is from Auchi and a PDP member. He has even been sanctioned in the PDP circle in Auchi, Edo State. So we don’t know his link with our untouchable Chairman.”
Gamji insisted Prof. Nentawe had only just assumed office and had been attracting high-profile figures into the party, warning that no attempt to destabilise the APC leadership would be tolerated.
Gamji, who said that Yilwatda has never blocked Governor Caleb Mutfwang from defecting to the APC, according to the claim by APC-YSN, added, “that can never be possible.
“The National Chairman is a democrat and cannot stop any governor from joining the APC. The governor himself admitted publicly that he is under pressure to join APC. Nobody is stopping him.”
The Forum also dismissed calls urging President Tinubu to investigate the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, saying the sponsors of such agitation did not mean well for Nigeria.
