Pursuant to Article 51(1) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) constitution, the Northern Regional Functional Executive Committee (FEC) has appointed Mr. Ali Adolf as the acting Regional Chairman following the sudden demise of the Regional Chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Mobila earlier this week.
The nomination of the former Saboba District Chief Executive has been surrounded with some controversies and disagreement on the provisions of the party’s constitution.
Mr. Ali Adolf is expected to serve the remaining tenure of the late Chairman Mobila whilst the party prepares to conduct its constituency elections and the regional delegates’ conference in few weeks or months to elect new crop of executives in the region.
But the NDC Regional Secretary, Mr. Mohammed Abdul Salam in a statement on Thursday (August 18, 2022) said, “That following the demise of the party’s Regional Chairman and pursuant to article 51(1)(3) of the constitution of the National Democratic Congress which states:
“51(1): A vacancy created in an executive position at any level of the party in between National, Regional and Constituency conference may be filled by appointment as follows: “51(3): Where there are more than one vice-chair or deputies, the party Executives at that level shall elect one of the vice-chair or deputies to occupy the vacant executive position until the next elections.”
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But in response to this, the office of the first Vice Chairman, Alhaji Rufai Vellim, in a communiqué stated the Regional Executive Committee lack the powers to appoint an acting Chairman. In his view, the matter should have been referred to the National Executives for direction on the way forward.
He argues, “When the meeting was called, he honored it this morning but disagreed with the agenda of the meeting because it was only yesterday that we lost our Chairman and the next day there is a meeting to get someone to fill the vacuum, but it was made known that it was just for one of them to lead them in the preparations towards a successful funeral for our former Chairman.”
The first Vice Chairman therefore entreat all party executives from branch to the Constituency and all his followers across the Region and beyond to exercise restraint and wait for directives from the National executives of the party.
Meanwhile, the NDC Regional Secretary in his statement affirmed that the Functional Executive Committee at its meeting held on August 17, 2022, has endorsed Hon. Ali Adolf, to assume the role of the Regional Chairman until the next elections.
According to Mohammed Abdul Salam, there is no First or Second Vice Chairman position in the executive structure of the party.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the National Democratic Congress has no such position as first or second Vice Chairman position in its current executive structure” he emphasized.
