Outrage erupted in Maiduguri on Monday after the All Progressives Congress (APC) excluded the photograph of Vice-President Kashim Shettima from a banner displayed at the North-East Zonal Public Hearing on the amendment of the party’s constitution.
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The omission drew angry reactions from party stakeholders and delegates, prompting the Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, Abdulkarim Lawan, to openly protest what he described as a disrespectful slight against the Vice-President.
The banner, produced for the event, featured photographs of President Bola Tinubu, the five APC governors from the North-East zone and the party’s National Legal Adviser, but conspicuously omitted Shettima’s image, despite his status as the number two citizen of the country and a prominent APC leader from the region.
Observers noted that the development was not an isolated incident, recalling a similar exclusion of the Vice-President’s photograph at an APC event in Gombe State last year, which reportedly triggered a fracas and forced the meeting to end abruptly.
Addressing the gathering, Lawan, the longest-serving Speaker in Nigeria’s history, expressed shock over the omission, warning that such actions could fuel unnecessary tension within the party.
“Why would the Vice-President’s picture not be included in the banner? This was what created the fracas in Gombe, and it is repeating itself here in Borno. I do not know the motive of the organisers, but it is not right,” he said.
He added, “How can the organisers exclude the picture of a sitting Vice-President, who is from Borno and the North-East zone?”
Lawan’s remarks were met with thunderous applause from the audience, reflecting widespread disapproval of the omission among party members present at the event.
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