Eniola Akinkuotu, Adebayo Folorunsho-Francis, Stephen Angbulu, El-ameen Ibrahim and Biodun Sanusi
6 June 2022
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Buhari meets APC National Advisory Council
Galadima slams Adamu as APC chair insists on punishing Tinubu
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Sunday met with some select stakeholders in the All Progressives Congress including former chairmen, the current National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu; the National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore; and some governors elected on the platform of the party.
The meeting came amid the inability of the governors to produce a consensus candidate barely 24 hours to the party’s convention.
A second meeting is expected to hold between all 22 governors of the APC and the President on Monday (today).
The PUNCH learnt that while the convention is expected to begin on Monday (today), the primary itself will not take place until Tuesday.
The programme of events sighted by The PUNCH showed that the election will hold from 6pm to 9pm on Tuesday after which the counting will be from 9pm to 10pm. The candidate will be expected to deliver his acceptance speech from 10pm to 10.15pm.
It was learnt that the over 2, 300 delegates had started arriving Abuja and had been lodged in hotels in the nation’s capital. The national chairman of the APC in Abuja on Sunday inaugurated the chairmen and assistants of the 18 sub-committees that would oversee the convention.
Almost all the APC governors were in attendance except Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai; Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State and Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu.
Akeredolu, who addressed the media on Friday about the readiness of the venue for the convention, was said to have suspended political activities following the news that several worshippers were massacred by gunmen while observing Sunday Mass in a Catholic Church in Owo
Speaking with the newly inaugurated chairmen and deputies, Adamu reassured them that the June 6 convention would go down in history as a memorable one.
Addressing journalists, Adamu disclosed that the presidential primary would be different because it is the first transition convention of the party
“This convention this year is a bit different from the other convention. It is different because it is the first transition convention of our great party. The forthcoming convention will be expected within our constitution to produce the candidate of our great party to contest the presidential slot.
“I have observed with satisfaction the fact that quite a number of our governors here if not all of them arrived on or before 3pm. I want to appreciate you for that because travelling differs from persons to persons and from place to place,” he stated.
As part of preparations for the APC primary, the Federal Capital Territory Command of the police said on Sunday that it had tightened security within Abuja.
A statement signed by the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Josephine Adeh, read in part, “The APC primary election is scheduled to hold from June 6 to June 7, 2022 at Eagle’s Square. The event is often associated with a high influx of different calibre of people, especially the politicos thereby requiring augmentation of the working security architecture of the FCT.” The police also stated that it had deployed operatives to strategic points within the country’s capital.
S’West meeting deadlocked
Meanwhile, The PUNCH learnt that the seven South-West aspirants of the APC failed to reach a consensus at the meeting convened by former Governor Olusegun Osoba and a former interim Chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande.
The seven aspirants from the South-West are: Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, APC leader, Bola Tinubu; Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Lagos cleric, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Deputy Senate Majority Leader, Ajayi Boroffice; former Governor Ibikunle Amosun and a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole.
All the governors from the South-West were also present at the meeting including some ministers from the region. It was learnt that Bakare was absent from the parley as he was said to be out of town.
One of the aspirants at the meeting, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “The leaders encouraged us to reduce our number in order to strengthen our chances. However, nobody really showed any commitment. Everyone just promised to consult their supporters and relatives and that they would consider it.
“The leaders promised to continue to communicate with us. I know that some of us will step down before or during the primary just as Governor Tambuwal did at the PDP primary.”
Tinubu must be punished, Adamu insists
Also, there were indications on Sunday that the national leadership of the APC is bent on punishing Tinubu for his outburst while meeting Ogun State delegates last Thursday.
The APC chairman told BBC Hausa that the APC would not allow the former governor’s comments go unpunished.
This is as he said the comments were unfit for a party loyalist or one held in high esteem in the APC.
Tinubu raised some dust last Thursday when he claimed that without him, Buhari would not have emerged the president in 2015, adding that Buhari was a serial election loser and had wept on television before he changed the President’s fortunes.
But speaking in Hausa on Sunday, Adamu said “We are not happy with what we heard from the former Governor of Lagos or rather, Senator, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in Abeokuta.
“Somebody whom we see as important in the life of our party should not be saying that, no matter what is done to him. He was saying something unrelated to what took him to Abeokuta. Even if someone provoked him in Abeokuta, it is not President Buhari. So, why did he say that if not for him, Buhari wouldn’t have won the Presidency? Someone sensible won’t make this kind of statement.
“He even said the president tried, once, twice and third time between Abuja and Lagos, that the President followed him for assistance to become president.”
He further noted that it was improper for the former governor to speak about his role in President Buhari’s emergence in public.
Efforts to get a response from Tinubu’s camp proved abortive as his spokesman, Tunde Rahman, neither responded to calls nor a text message on Sunday.
Galadima slams Adamu
However, APC chieftain and former National Secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, Alhaji Buba Galadima, slammed Adamu for threatening Tinubu.
Galadima, who claimed to be one of the signatories to the agreement that formed the APC, said Adamu was in the PDP when the likes of Tinubu were working hard to ensure that the merger succeeded.
Galadima stated, “Well, who is the APC chairman? Where was he when some of us were fighting for Buhari? Where was he? He should remember what he did to us in 2003. Is it because Buhari has forgotten?
“If Buhari recollects what the APC national chairman did to him, he will not even ever allow him to shake his hand, let alone make him chairman.”
Galadima maintained that Buhari indeed agreed to support Tinubu’s Presidential aspiration as far back as 2014 but it was unfortunate that the President had betrayed him.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
However, a top aide to the President said Galadima’s claim that Buhari promised to support Tinubu’s Presidency was hogwash
Sunday, December 22, 2024