Vice President Kashim Shettima, at a reception in Adamawa State on Monday for Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, who joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) last month, said Fintiri has automatically become the party leader in Adamawa State.
Shettima made the clarification amid ongoing arguments about whether Fintiri leads the party in the state, as opposed to National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, who was the leader before the defection of Fintiri to the APC.
Shettima cited examples from his home state of Borno, where Governor Babagana Zulum, rather than himself, is the party leader, and from Plateau State, where the APC National Chairman hails from, but Governor Caleb Mutfwang is the party leader.
Speaking on behalf of President Bola Tinubu at the grand reception for Fintiri on Monday evening, Shettima said the APC and the Federal Government are proud of Fintiri and pleased to welcome him and his supporters into the party.
“As we arrived in Yola earlier today, we were welcomed not only by the people but also by the worthy projects that you have put in place,” Shettima told Fintiri.
The APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, while presenting Fintiri with the party’s flag, said the APC is glad to have him, describing him as a hardworking governor, and urged him to make the party’s flag fly even more vigorously.
The National Chairman, while handing over the APC’s symbolic broom to Fintiri, charged him to bring the remnants of other parties in the state into the APC.
In his remarks, Governor Fintiri, who on Sunday, March 22, convinced former ADC governorship candidate Senator Abdulazeez Nyako to return to the APC, pledged to work hard to bring other notable figures into the party.
Shettima declares Fintiri APC leader in Adamawa