ADP overrules Kaduna chair on suspension of gov candidate

The national leadership of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) has overruled the actions of the embattled acting chairman in Kaduna State, Umar Isah, who claimed to have suspended the party’s governorship candidate, Sani Sha’aban, ahead of the March 18 election. In a statement released in Kaduna on Tuesday, ADP National Secretary Victor Fingesi asserted that Isah, himself under suspension, had no authority to suspend the candidate. Fingesi described Isah’s press conference as “illegal, null and void,” and reaffirmed that Sha’aban remains the bona‑fide ADP governorship candidate in the state. The party urged supporters and members to disregard Isah and to back Sha’aban in the upcoming election.

The statement continued: “The National Secretariat’s attention was drawn to an illegal press conference held by the suspended Kaduna State Chairman, Hon. Umar Isah, in which he falsely claimed that the party’s governorship candidate, Hon. Sani Mahmud Sha’aban, was suspended. Hon. Sani Mahmud Sha’aban, who was duly elected as the ADP Kaduna State gubernatorial standard‑bearer at a congress conducted in accordance with the 2022 Electoral Act, remains the party’s candidate for the March 18 governorship election. The people of Kaduna State and supporters of our party are therefore urged to reject Isah’s unauthorized press conference in its entirety and to vote en masse for Hon. Sani Mahmud Sha’aban as the next governor, as well as for our state‑assembly candidates across the various constituencies.”

In a separate letter addressed to the suspended acting chairman, the ADP reiterated that “you (Umar Isah) are no longer the chairman of the party in Kaduna State, as per the letter dated 8 March 2023. Hon. Sani Mahmud Sha’aban is the bona‑fide ADP governorship candidate in Kaduna State.” The national secretariat expressed astonishment at the content of Isah’s press conference, noting that the party had consistently offered him opportunities to raise his concerns. Instead, he “acted as if he were an emperor, arrogating to himself the power to sack the party’s governorship candidate.” The letter advised Isah to comply with his suspension, cease further actions, and immediately hand over all party property to the acting chairman.