APC NWC summons Ndume over anti-Tinubu comments, may reinstate him as Senate Whip

The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC), led by Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, summoned Sen. Ali Ndume on Tuesday to account for his recent comments criticizing President Bola Tinubu, which resulted in his removal as Senate Whip.

Following the meeting, Ganduje said the party accepted Ndume’s apology and would communicate its satisfaction to the Senate leadership, with the aim of reconsidering his removal as Senate Whip.

Persecondnews recalls that Ndume’s removal followed a complaint by the NWC to the Senate, chaired by Sen. Godswill Akpabio, regarding the Borno senator’s comments critical of Tinubu.

Speaking after the meeting at the national secretariat of the APC, Ganduje said: “We are quite satisfied with his apology. Like he said, we invited him, and you know the party is the father of everybody.

“As a party, we are free to invite legislators, we are free to invite members of the executive, and we are even free to invite all the appointed party members in the government, so that is why we decided to come.

“It is a family issue; we need to resolve it, and we are writing to the National Assembly conveying what has transpired between Ndume and the party and you know he apologized to the party, and we will convey the same issue to the National Assembly with the hope they can review their position.”

Ndume acknowledged that he should have addressed his concerns through the party’s internal channels rather than publicly airing them on national television.

He said: “Yesterday, I was invited by the party, and here I am to discuss family matters. Actually, the national chairman is not just a national chairman to me, but a father.

“With what has happened which you are all aware, it is not surprising that I was invited to hear my own side, and we had family discussions. I actually accepted the mistake of not talking to the party as a last point, and I promised the party that all my observations as a senior member of the family should have terminated or ended with the party.

“That is something that moving forward I will do, but whatever I said or whatever I did was out of patriotism, and those issues may be said strongly, but they are true, but then I should have talked to the party as the last bus stop.

“My membership I have not been expelled; even the party did not say we don’t want you here because he is my father. The party is my father; the only thing the party said is that, look, if you don’t want this house, you can go to any house. Where will I go? This is my house.

“The President and the Senate have nothing to do with this. The President did not take offence; I didn’t insult the President; I didn’t say anything against the party, but I left the party out of reaching out to it on issues, and so, please, I think that is all I can say.”