The All Progressives Congress APC has again disowned an alleged splinter group, Team New Nigeria, after the group flooded Kano metropolis with the campaign posters of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
On Thursday, posters of the former President running for election in 2027 flooded some strategic locations such as Gyadi-Gyadi/Zoo Road flyover, Kofar Nasarawa, and State Road in Kano, with inscriptions like “Team New Nigeria 2027; The Goodluck Nigeria Needs — Dr Goodluck Jonathan.”
The former President faced similar circumstances when numerous supporters procured nomination forms for him on the APC platform for the 2023 elections, a move he claimed to be unaware of.
Reacting, the ruling party APC insisted that the group did not emanate from its fold and were not known members at any level of the APC.
The rebuttal comes five days after the TNN announced that its loyalists were leaving the ruling party to form a new political party that would rescue Nigeria from the threshold of poverty, hunger, insecurity and devastation.
READ ALSO: Senator Barau Confident APC Will Reclaim Kano State
The group’s National President, Modibbo Farakwai, boasted at the official inauguration of the Kano State harmonisation committee that they were targetting no fewer than 26 million voters across the country.
Deputy National Organising Secretary of the party, Nze Chidi Duru, said their printing and promotion of Jonathan’s campaign posters despite knowing he is not a card-carrying member was a further validation the TNN was never from the fold of the APC.
“I will not venture into any conjecture. It is a group I consider to be amorphous that is not known to the APC. If they were genuine members of the APC, it would have been clear to them that former President Goodluck Jonathan was not a member of the party.
READ ALSO: Why Kano Gov Yusuf Will Soon Defect To Our Party—APC
“Even when a group purchased a form for him within the APC in the last election, they were immediately discountenanced and Jonathan was not given the ticket. Until he is a card-carrying member of the APC, it is only then we can give him that recognition.
“But following or having an understanding with a non-member of the APC again validates the position that these (splinter group) are not members of our party. If they are members of the party and want to form a different initiative within the APC, they are more than welcome. It is the beauty of democracy.
“In so far as this has not been done and they are now working within the ambit of the APC, they cannot be considered to be members or have any link whatsoever with the APC,” Duru explained.