APC Crisis: 13 Governors May Leave Party, Insist On Buni As Chairman

ABUJA – Thirteen governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are set on a collision course with their remaining counterparts in the party as they insist that Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni, must retain his position as chairman of the party’s Caretaker Extraordinary Con­vention Planning Committee (CECPC).

The governors also threat­ened to abandon the broom party if the decision taken at the National Executive Council (NEC) of APC in 2020 that Buni should head the party until the national convention is held, is not respected by President Mu­hammadu Buhari and other members of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF).

Internal wrangling in the party reached a boiling point on Monday with a faction of APC governors claiming that Presi­dent Buhari has named Niger State governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, as Buni’s replacement to head the CECPC.

Daily Independent gathered that the 13 governors, who met in Abuja on Monday night, con­templated leaving the APC for another political party as their future would be uncertain in their current party if what they described as “the ongoing ille­gality” is allowed to stand.

Another option on the ta­ble, which is being seriously weighed by the governors is teaming up with the opposi­tion Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as three of them defected to the APC from PDP.

The governors are report­edly upset with the way their colleagues in the “cabal” are belittling them in the deci­sion-making process of the party having first lost out on the fixing of a date for the par­ty’s national convention and are now facing further humiliation with the attempted imposition of Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State, as the CE­CPC chairman.

One of the governors from the North-East geopolitical zone protested that “the cabal formed by our other colleagues has suf­focated the life out of APC. The party has been reduced to the equivalent of a drug-dealing gang where decisions are now based on who can manipulate President (Muhammadu) Bu­hari better.

“Even if APC governors were constituted into a kind of electoral college to make deci­sions for the party, which is not the case, there is no way seven is greater than thirteen. When you have only seven governors forcing their decision on thir­teen governors of equal juris­diction then you know there is a problem.

“So, what we are saying is that we are ready for them. We are not saying that Mai Mala Buni should not stop being the chairman of CECPC, but our point is that there must be due process. There is a proper way to go about it, not some charac­ter sneaking to the president to snitch in the dark of the night and then come out throwing the president’s name around.

“If they want us to fall out with them as fellow APC gov­ernors then we are ready. But this thing about being dictato­rial must stop. It is a democra­cy, and the APC must run as a democracy. Or else there is no example we are showing any­body as leaders”, the aggrieved governor who spoke anony­mously said.

Meanwhile, the 13 gover­nors had their various Attor­neys-General write legal opin­ions on the illegality of what happened at the party’s secre­tariat on Monday.

Governor Bello has main­tained that he was only acting as chairman, since Buni was yet to return from his Dubai medical leave.

But with the inauguration of state chapters’ chairmen and reception of zoning committee report by Bello on Monday, pun­dits pointed to the fact that he was playing a script written by the seven governors, on behalf of Buhari.

As at night time of filing this report, the presidency was yet to make any official statement on the status of Governor Bello and the fate of Buni.

APC Adopts Zoning Report, Holds NEC Meeting Next Week

Meanwhile, Governor Sani Bello of Niger and acting Chair­man, All Progressives Congress (APC) CaretakerExtraordinary Convention Planning Commit­tee (CECPC), has disclosed that the National Executive Com­mittee (NEC) of the ruling par­ty will be convened next week ahead of the party’s national convention.

He also declared that the party has adopted report of the zoning arrangement submitted to it by the Gov. AbdulRazak Ab­dulRahman led committee.

He said the party will soon unveil the zoning formula to the public.

Fielding reporters’ question after a meeting, Governor Bello said: “The report on the zoning formula has been submitted and adopted and it will be re­leased any moment from now. I mean the zoning formula.

“Hopefully, by next week, the NEC meeting will hold”, he said.

“It is a continuation of yes­terday’smeeting. Andjustknow you are not going to be asking me same thing tomorrow be­cause we are going to be meet­ing every day until convention so that we can put things to­gether.

“Basically, today we looked at the convention sub-committee and we collected some of the reports from the committee hoping that tomorrow we will decide on the next step to take.

“Nothing much happened today”, he noted.

On whether the former CE­CPC Secretary, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, is still part of the new leadership, the Gov. Bello replied, “Ask him”.

APC Senators Meet Over Fear Of Party Implosion

Again, APC senators hur­riedly met on Tuesday over fear of implosion in the party.

The senators, who met in Abuja, expressed concern over seeming disarray in the party.

Addressing newsmen short­ly after their closed door meet­ing that lasted for about two hours, the Leader of the Sen­ate, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (APC, Kebbi North), said that the concern of the lawmakers on the platform of the APC at the moment is to save the party from further crisis at the nation­al level.

He said: “What we are con­cerned about is the seeming disarray in the party.”

Senator Abdullahi disclosed that the senators have resolved to serve as uniting block with­in the party to bring together all the various groups with vested interests.

He said: “We are too worried about what is happening in our party and we expressed our con­cern over the challenges facing the party very close to its nation­al convention.

“As very important stake­holders in the party, we want to draw the attention of everyone involved to come together and unite so that we can have very successful convention in the party.

“This is not the time for ex­changing regrets about what we could do. What is happening is about the future of our party and government and also the capacity of our party to win elections in 2023.

“We cannot afford to come to the convention as a divided entity. Anywhere there are challenges that could cost the party its victory is a loss for everybody.

“So we have resolved to meet again to articulate the major is­sues and then meet with the var­ious stakeholders and aspirants of the party to advise and call for unity and sense of purpose in order to make sure that we unite every faction, every stakehold­er of the party, so that the party can emerge victorious in 2023 elections”.

The APC Senate Caucus, however, commended the Caretaker Committee for some of the gains it made within the last two years.