In the wake of the worsening leadership crisis in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), immediate-past Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Salihu Moh-Lukman has faulted reports that President Muhammadu Buhari may have sacked Gov. Mai Mala Buni as National Chairman, Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the party.
Lukman in his reaction to the development on Monday said the story was planted by those sympathetic to Gov. Buni in order to cast President Buhari in the mold of a dictator.
According to him, there are several allegations against the Buni-led CECPC, one of which he said is that the committee has allegedly procured a court order against holding the national convention on March 26 but which it intends to tender few days to the convention.
He said; “The sensational but mischievously planted news in some media is that President Buhari has sacked Buni as APC CECPC Chairman and replaced him with Abubakar Sani-Bello as Sole Administrator.
“This is a clear misrepresentation of all the internal contests in APC aimed at rescuing the party from the mutinous leadership of Buni, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe and their few collaborators.
“The truth is that Buhari, like most party leaders and members is highly disappointed at the serial cases of deliberate efforts by Buni and his associates to block the APC Convention from holding based on alleged personal ambitions.
“Between November 2021 and January 2022, the APC Convention had to be postponed three times because of deliberate refusal to initiate most the processes required, such as booking the venue for the Convention and serving the statutory three weeks’ notice to INEC.
“In addition, there were other serious allegations against the leadership of Buni which include the discovery that his group, since November 2022, had obtained a Court injunction against the Convention and are waiting until three or two days to the Convention before serving it on the party to succeed in blocking the March 26 APC Convention from holding.
“The plot is that Buni want to continue to run the affairs of the party and conduct the party’s primary where candidates for 2023 elections would emerge. Based on that there are specific allegations of Buni striking some deals with some Presidential aspirants to ensure their emergence as the Presidential Candidate of APC for the 2023 elections”.
He said a good confirmation of why it will be difficult for party leaders and members to continue to invest any trust in Buni’s leadership of the Caretaker Committee is the attempt to constitute another zoning Committee after there is decision between Buhari and PGF on zoning, based on which stakeholders of the party at zonal levels are to finalise negotiations on positions to go states.
“As far as Buni is concerned, his interest is supreme and together with the Secretary of the CECPC, Sen. Akpanudoedehe and their collaborators outside the CECPC, they must block the APC Convention from holding on March 26.
“As part of the plot, once they heard that Buhari has agreed with some party leaders that necessary steps to save the party should be taken, which require change of the CECPC leadership, they decided to present it in the media that the President has sacked Buni as the Chairman of the CECPC and appointed Sani Bello as Sole Administrator.
“This is mischievously designed to present both the party and Buhari as being undemocratic. To the contrary, internal organs of the party with all the statutory powers to effect all the necessary changes will be used to give effect to all the aspirations of Buhari, party leaders and members to rescue the APC from the decidedly depraved leadership of Bumi.
“Anybody that will emerge as a replacement of Buni and Akpanudoedehe as Chairman Secretary will have all the requisite mandate of the organs vested with such responsibility as provided by the Constitution of the party.
“This is the time when Buni and Akpanudoedehe and all their collaborators are required to demonstrate their loyalty to the party and Buhari. Attempts to delegitimise the process of changing the leadership will only confirm their undertaker mission rather than serving as leaders of the CECPC.
“All party leaders and members should support other members of the CECPC to rise to this occasion by ensuring that they effectively enforce collective leadership in the CECPC at this critical point in the life of the APC. Similarly, all leaders and members of the party must be vigilant to ensure that the new leadership of the party to emerge from all the internal contest currently going on are leaders that will faithfully implement all decisions, especially the scheduled March 26, Convention”, Lukman stated