The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, has been challenged on his recent statement that only true indigenous members of the party in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will be considered for election into public offices.
In a statement made available to Blueprint in Abuja, Thursday, leader of APC non-natives in FCT, Dr Lawrence Onuchukwu, condemned the statement, describing it as a recipe for disaster and a setback for the party in the FCT.
Dr. Onuchukwu who is immediate past vice chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), said the statement is not only condemnable but also has the potential to cause discouragement to the teeming non-indigenes who are members of the party.
While pointing out that politics is a game of numbers, he said the voting strength of non-indigenes far surpasses that of indigenes.
He noted that if the party relies solely on indigenes, it will fail woefully, buttressing his point with the 2023 presidential and national assembly election result , where sitting indigenous Senator and House of Representatives members lost to non-indigenes.
The APC non-native leader questioned the motive behind Ganduje’s statement and what he hopes to achieve by excluding non-indigenes from contesting election.