The Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), Kano State chapter has been caught up in election crisis that is threatening to split the association into two factions.
The chief cause of the controversy Inclusive News Network (INN) learnt, was a deliberate delay by outgoing executive members to conduct election to legitimately select new leaders at the close of their tenure.
Information available to INN revealed that outgoing Chairman of the association has unjustifiably continue to parade himself as Chairman even with expiration of his tenure a year earlier. This has elicited complaints, resentments and tension from different quarters of the State JONAPWD chapter.
According to a press release signed by a member of Kano State JONAPWD, Mr Usman Yusuf and made available to INN, the genesis of the crisis was the decision taken by a faction loyal to the outgoing Chairman to conduct an election secretly on 27-02-22 without the knowledge of the majority in the office of SSA to the Governor, Mr Tasiu Shehu Garko.
Usman who is also an aspirant for the Chairmanship slot lamented that despite the fact that a formal letter of complaint has been forwarded to the Acting National President of JONAPWD, Mr Abdullahi Kebbi, challenging the authenticity of such illegal election, nothing was being done by the Acting National President.
A statement by Mr Usman noted that since 10th March, 2022 a letter of complaint signed by him has been forwarded to the JONAPWD National headquarters to notify the Acting National President of the controversial issue and seek his intervention.
Usman lamented that “to date nothing has been done by the President despite his acknowledging receipt of the letter”.
“The delay by the President is what gave room for the so-called faction to feel that what they did was right, and the situation continues to worsen”, he added.
Similarly, in a separate letter of complaint send to the Executive Secretary, National Commission of Persons With Disabilities, NCPWD, James Lalu, the Kano State Cluster Heads Forum (KSCHF) corroborated the story of Mr Usman Yusuf on the controversial election. The group noted that the outgoing Chairman has single handedly constituted the electoral committee, appointed the Chairman and Secretary of the committee and went on to submit the names of delegates that will vote in the election without any inputs of the cluster heads and that of the State executives.
KSCHF further accused the outgoing Chairman on deliberate breach of agreement and abuse of office – stressing that “the Chairman had attempted to conduct an illegal election several times but we blocked him by calling the attention of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and police headquarters.
“The situation led to the Police SlB calling a meeting with the SEMA National President, all cluster heads, SSAs on disability, the executive office aspirants and JONAPWD ex-executives”.
“It was only the president who was absent at the meeting. However the Kano SIB boss called him and he promised to attend the next meeting. The President was able to attend the second meeting which had only stakeholders in attendance. There and then, it was unanimously agreed that the standing electoral committee is dissolved and all materials be handed over to SEMA. It was also agreed that cluster heads, SEMA represatives and one SSA should serve as new the electoral committee that would oversee affairs of the general election”.
“Further to that, it was also agreed that since the tenure of the executives has expired, the executives should handover all official properties to SEMA as is done in Kano State JONAPWD. It is the tradition in Kano for the incoming chairman to receive the Association’s properties from past executives through SEMA. The Cluster heads, in collaboration with LGA branches now file the names of delegates and submit same to the new electoral committee.’ the statement reads in part.
In his reaction to the demand put before him by Mr Usman Yusuf, the JONAPWD Acting National President Mr Abdullahi Kebbi read the riot act to the Kano State JONAPWD stakeholder, warning him to withdraw all social media posts on the Kano election issues to allow the JONAPWD National headquarters handle the situation. The National President stressed that the JONAPWD National headquarters has upon receiving Mr Usman’s letter of complaint sent a delegation to Kano State to interact with stakeholders there and report back to headquarters.
The reaction of the President, as contained in a warning letter signed by the National Chief whip of JONAPWD, Mr Iliya Adamu and sent to Mr Usman Yusuf reads in part:
“To set the record clear and succinctly, the JONAPWD National Executive, upon receiving your letter of complaint, deliberated on it and set up a 3-man independent committee to go to Kano and interact with all the parties and report back”
“This decision has been communicated to you and other stakeholders in Kano still you decided to employ social media to insinuate and demean the National Executives of JONAPWD and the office of National President of the Association. These actions are no longer acceptable and you are strongly advised to go back to all platforms where you make such insinuations and retract them immediately while allowing the committee set up to do their job”.
Meanwhile, efforts by INN correspondent to get reactions of the outgoing Chairman of Kano State JONAPWD and that of the SSA to the Governor on Disability matters failed to materialize.
However, hopes of reconciliation among the parties involved were being raised from different quarters in the State as at the time of compiling this report.