Female Protesters Storm APC National Secretariat, Call For Resignation Of Women Leader
Protest rocked the national headquarters of the All Progressives Congress in Abuja on Friday as scores of female protesters demanded the resignation of the National Women Leader, Dr Mary Alile-Idele.
Osun Defender reports that the protesters accused the women leader of negligence, pursuit of personal interests, and alleged diversion of some parts of the 24,000 wrappers donated by the First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, and her delegation when they visited the party secretariat.
While displaying several banners that read, ‘Enough is Enough!’ ‘Mary Alile Resign Now’ and ‘APC Women Leader Must Go,’ and singing solidarity songs, the aggrieved female protesters appealed to the First Lady and the National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, to remove her for continually undermining female members of the party.
Alile-Idele became the substantive national women leader after her predecessor, Dr. Betta Edu, was appointed Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (now suspended) by President Bola Tinubu.
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Findings revealed that the protest for her removal came barely two weeks ago when the First Lady, who was represented by Hajia Nana, the wife of Vice President Kashim Shettima, presented bales of wrappers to Alile and her state women leaders following their outcry the previous week that they had been abandoned by the president despite their contribution to his election victory.
After the donation, Ganduje warned that the women leaders should distribute the fabrics judiciously.
Meanwhile, the protesters led by the Coordinator of ‘Concerned APC Women’, Rebecca Sheneni, told journalists on Friday that it was as if the APC national chairman had a premonition of what would happen, alleging that only 9,000 of the 24,000 fabrics were shared.
She also alleged that rather than pursue a common cause for their benefit, the national women leader has been junketing all over the country promoting the agenda of a pet project in her non-governmental organisation.
According to her, “We, the Concerned APC Women Group, an umbrella body for all female members of the governing APC, deem it necessary and imperative to demand the immediate resignation of Mrs Mary Alile-Idele, the National Women Leader of our party.
“We are concerned that since assuming office, Mrs Mary Alile-Idele has displayed incompetence in her role. She appears to be more focused on promoting her Non-Governmental Organisation rather than the party. This is evident in her recent travels to various states to inaugurate her NGO’s executives, instead of promoting the agenda and manifesto of our party to Nigerian women.
“Furthermore, Her Excellency the First Lady provided her with over 24,000 wrappers to distribute to Women leaders and party members, but she only distributed less than 9,000. Where are the rest? We wonder how a UK-based person with no political experience and no record of membership in our party could be considered for this exalted position.
“She prioritises her personal interests over those of the APC, leading to the nomination of her husband for appointment as a member of the University of Port Harcourt Governing Council and various party assignments.
“Considering her numerous misdeeds and misconduct, we call for her immediate removal from the position of the APC. She has demonstrated a high level of incompetence and we have had enough.”
Efforts to get the APC national women leader to react to the allegations proved abortive as she has not picked up calls or responded to the SMS and WhatsApp messages sent for clarification.
However, the women leader for Imo State, Mrs Patricia Okuebor-Benson, rose to her defence, saying the allegations were not true.
She said, “I am just hearing of this now because nobody told me before. As I speak, the 36 state women leaders and the FCT are in Abuja having a meeting and nobody has accused anybody of anything.
“We don’t know where these women are getting their stories from. I believe every state has received its fabrics. I really don’t know what they are talking about. I think somebody is sponsoring them.”
