Elected members of the 7th National Assembly of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) rose from an emergency meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, affirming their support for the leadership of Senator Tanko Al-Makura.

Led by Nasiru Babale Ila, the forum at a press conference slammed Malami over his comments questioning the credibility of the CPC bloc led by Makura, who was the former Governor of Nasarawa State.

Malami had argued that Al-Makura led the CPC bloc of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which openly declared their loyalty to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu group lacked the authority to speak for CPC legacy members.

Malami had insisted that only the faction aligned with former President Muhammadu Buhari, to which he belongs, could determine whether or not to engage with the emerging opposition coalition spearheaded by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai.

The forum, however, maintained that Malami lacks electoral value to speak ill of the Al-Makura-led CPC bloc, which they not only belong to but boast of millions of supporters across the country.

They thereby declared that neither Malami nor any group of persons or entity has the authority to speak for or on behalf of the CPC, except elected representatives of the party who were duly chosen by its supporters in 2011.

Stating that more needs to be done to accommodate members of the CPC bloc in the President Tinubu-led administration, they reaffirm their support for the APC ahead of the 2027 poll.

“We, the former elected members of the CPC from the 7th Assembly and many more who stood for elections, won and were subsequently robbed of their hard-earned, hard-won, yet short-lived victories, remain the only legitimate and authentic voice of the defunct CPC,” they noted.

“We are the true custodians of the party’s legacy and the representatives of the twelve million Nigerians, predominantly in northern Nigeria, who entrusted us with their mandate.”

Members of the forum are mainly drawn from Katsina, Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi, Nigeria states, thereby calling on Nigerians, particularly the supporters of the APC in Northern Nigeria, to disregard any unauthorized statements, actions, or representations made in the name of the CPC.