SGF Akume: I’m not available for position of APC Chairman

By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume, has dismissed a newspaper report that he was among those jostling to emerge as the new Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

A national newspaper had listed Akume among the top politicians from the North Central senatorial zone in the APC jostling to emerge as the new chairman of the ruling party.

The position became vacant following recent resignation of Abdullahi Ganduje as the chairman of the party.

But Akume, in a statement by Yomi Odunuga, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity on Thursday said he is not interested in the position of APC Chairmanship

He described the newspaper report as a fabrication meant to distract him from the key responsibilities that have been placed on him by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“For the record, Senator Akume is not jostling with anyone for the post of either the APC National Chairman or any other post in the party.

The SGF said his main focus for now is to ensure that he does not in any way betray the intrinsic trust that President Tinubu reposed in him in ensuring that the Renewed Hope Agenda of the ruling party and the government is achieved within the targeted time frame.

While Senator Akume believes that there are qualified candidates in the North-Central to vie for the National Chairmanship position should the party decide to zone the position to the North-Central geopolitical zone, he is of the opinion that what is paramount to him is to help in fast-track national development in line with the government’s Renewed Hope Agenda instead of getting entangled in the politics of who becomes the National Chairman of the party.

Akume said: “I am not in a hurry to abdicate my responsibility and the task that the President of the Federal Republic has placed before me. I am a firm believer in the principle that whatever God plans for you will surely come to pass. So I can’t be in a race that I am not interested in.

“Everything that I have been in life has been given to me by the Almighty God through the instrumentality of people including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. To say that I am one of the prominent politicians gunning for the position of the APC Chairman is completely false because I am in the process of ensuring that the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President and the government is realised so that Nigerians can enjoy the true dividends of democracy that they crave for. We are working day and night to deliver on these promises under the supervision of the President and we are totally committed to this”.

The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation would appreciate, in the principle of fairness, that professionalism and the ethics of journalism should be taken seriously in reportage especially in writing stories that are as sensitive as this which are capable of heating the polity.

The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation is open to be contacted for verification of facts and it will be appreciated if media practitioners will avail themselves of this opportunity at every given time.