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President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to tolerate the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led caretaker committee pending when the party holds a national convention to elect a new National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
Buhari told the APC governors that since attempts to remove Buhari have failed, it was better to allow him exit the office quietly without running into trouble with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Femi Adesina, Buhari’s senior media adviser, quoted the president as giving the advice in a letter he wrote to the chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State.
THE WHISTLER reports that the development is the first open confirmation of earlier reports that Buhari had approved Buni’s removal as the chairman of the party’s Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) before traveling to the United Kingdom on medical leave.
According to Adesina, Buhari warned that “the multiplicity of cases currently rocking the party has the prospect of invalidating the activities and actions of the Party by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)”, hence the need to allow Buni to remain in office pending the election of new party executives at the convention.
The presidential aide said Buhari directed as follows: “The issue of the leadership of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Committee (CECC) should immediately return to status quo ante;
“All members of the Governors Forum and their followers should desist from any behaviour or utterance that will likely lead to disunity in the ranks of the party, and ultimately jeopardise the transition to the convention;
“The Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Committee should accordingly be allowed to proceed with all necessary preparations to hold the convention as planned- unfailingly on 26th March, 2022.”
Adesina added that the president copied Buni, the Acting Chairman of the CECC, Governor Sani Bello, the Director-General of the Depart of State Services (DSS) and the Inspector General of Police in the letter.
Meanwhile, Buni, who is equally on medical leave abroad, had on Wednesday visited President Buhari in the UK amidst the myriad of crises rocking the party ahead of its March 26 national convention.
