The cloud over the fate of caretaker chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has cleared.
Mai Mala Buni has been eased out with secretary of the Caretaker/Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, it was learnt yesterday.
“Buni won’t return to the office and Akpanudoedehe will quit. They have been given a soft landing” a source said last night, adding: “President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive will be fully carried out.”
Acting Chairman and Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello yesterday consolidated his hold on the leadership.
He has summoned a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting for next week.
Bello held a meeting with other caretaker committee members where decisions on the convention were taken.
On Monday night, he met with state chairmen to unfold his plans for the convention and to solicit their support.
The Yobe State governor, who is expected back from Dubai today, will resign his position, “to seek the ticket to return for second term”.
Akpanudoedehe will go in similar manner ‘to pursue his governorship ambition”.
Yesterday, the caretaker committee had its second meeting in two days on the convention and other issues, including zoning of the National Working Committee (NWC) offices.
Buni and Akpanudoedehe are being ousted for deliberately stalling the plan to hold the convention.
On Monday, Sani Bello swore in state chairmen, reviewed the report of the zoning committee, led by Kwara State Governor AbbulRazaq AbdulRahaman, and presided over the caretaker exco meeting.
Speaking to reporters after the exco meeting yesterday, Bello said: “Today, we looked at the convention sub-committees and we collected some of the reports from the committees, hoping that tomorrow, we will decide on the next step to take. Nothing much happened today.”
On the zoning committee report, Sani Bello said: “The report on the zoning formula has been submitted and adopted and it will be released any moment from now.”
He added that the NEC meeting will hold “hopefully, by next week”.
Asked whether Akpanudoedehe is still part of the new leadership, Bello replied: “Ask him.”
There was a mild drama at the secretariat. Akpanudoedehe was speculated to have resigned yesterday after he left the secretariat unceremoniously, but he returned later to refute the report.
He said: “I have read on social media that I have resigned as Secretary of the APC. I want to state that it is not true. If I have resigned, you would have seen my letter. Someone cannot just say somebody is dead when he is alive.
“I am not bigger than the party, or bigger than the President, who is the leader of the country. I am waiting for my national chairman to come back.
“If we have a directive from the President that we should resign, we are not bigger than the President, we will do so. Like MKO Abiola used to say, you don’t shave someone’s head in his absence.
“When we came in, this place was like a dead zone. The secretariat was moved to a private home. But we were committed to what we were doing.”
When asked on his relationship with the acting chairman, Akpanudoedehe said: “Our relationship is very cordial.”
Also yesterday, the Senate caucus of the APC expressed concern over the situation in the party. After a meeting, it called for unity among party members ahead of the convention.
