There was chaos at the meeting of All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders in the North- East, on Sunday, after Comrade Mustapha Salihu, National Vice Chairman of the ruling in the North-East, failed to mention the name of Vice-President Kashim Shettima while endorsing President Bola Tinubu for a second term.
The meeting, which was held in Gombe State, was attended by virtually all ministers, lawmakers, and governors of the party from the region.
Abdullahi Ganduje, National Chairman of the APC, also led some key personalities to the event.
When it was the turn of Salihu to speak, he endorsed Tinubu to emerge as an unopposed candidate of the APC but was silent about Shettima.
The moment he finished his speech, delegates at the forum started to hurl insults at him, with some threatening to attack him physically, but he had to be escorted out of the meeting by security operatives.
To calm the situation, the Deputy National Chairman of the party, Bukar Dalori, endorsed both Tinubu and Shettima for a second term.
Salient Times report that Shettima is from Borno, one of the states in the North-East region.
The meeting ended abruptly after the National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, also endorsed Tinubu alone, without Shettima.
Our correspondent reports that Ganduje didn’t also mention Shettima’s name throughout his speech, which lasted about 10 minutes.
He had to be also escorted out of the venue by security operatives.
Reacting to the development, a public affairs analyst, Abdul-Aziz Na’ibi Abubakar, said it could be the genesis of a crisis in the party.
“The beginning of the APC’s downfall has just begun as Governor Zulum led a protest against the APC North-East meeting for failing to endorse Kashim Shettima ahead of 2027!” he wrote on X.
Earlier Salient Times reported that there is tension in the North-East after APC stalwarts endorsed Tinubu, leaving out Shettima, who hails from Borno, a state in the region.
Last month, APC chairman Abdullahi Ganduje, at the party’s national summit in Abuja, announced Tinubu as the sole presidential candidate in 2027.
Recall that Tinubu, in his Democracy Day remarks at the National Assembly last Thursday, mocked the opposition party for being in disarray.
