Twenty-four hours after the resignation of Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), stakeholders of the party from the North-Central have resumed agitations to fill the vacancy.

The stakeholders under the umbrella of North-Central APC Forum in a statement on Saturday by its Chairman and member of the APC Campaign Council for the 2023 election, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, asked President Bola  Ahmed Tinubu and other stakeholders to pick Ganduje’s replacement from the region for the sake of fairness, justice and equity.

“We are not asking for the position of national chairman just as a matter of right – we know that the North-Central has capable personalities that can take the APC to victory in 2023.

“Allowing the North-Central to produce the national chairman will not only ensure that the right thing is done, it will ensure they continue on the path of progress and strength.

“We urge the party stakeholders not to delay in ensuring that the right thing is done,” the statement said.

The stakeholders argued that  Senator Abdullahi Adamu, a former governor of Nasarawa State (North- Central) had resigned in 2023 in controversial circumstances, but instead of the party to pick his replacement from the zone to complete his tenure, Ganduje was picked from the North-West region as chairman.

The Forum also appealed to President  Tinubu to ask APC acting national chairman, Ali Bukar Dalori, to convene a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) for the emergence of a substantive national chairman from the North-Central.

“It is on record that the North-Central APC Forum had for long advocated that the party honours the principles of the subsisting zoning arrangement which ceded the position of National Chairman to the North-Central.

“We agitated that the region be allowed to complete the tenure of former national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, even going to court to argue our case.

“But after the ratification of the appointment of Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje as national chairman by the National Executive Committee (NEC) in the overall interest of the party, we decided to suspend the agitation.

“Now that the Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje has decided to step aside, we feel it is only fair and just for the party to, finally, do the right thing and allow the North-Central to produce the National Chairman, for the sake of fairness, justice and equity.”