Twelve days to the national convention of the All Progressives Congress, the ruling party has failed to sell forms to aspirants while all the committees set up by the APC to ensure that the convention moves smoothly have failed to begin sitting.
This is just as ATGMag learned on Monday that the governors were still very much divided on who the consensus candidate should be.
An APC chieftain, who craved anonymity told ATGMag that so far, it did not seem as if the party would be holding its convention on March 26.
He said so far, none of the chairmanship aspirants had agreed to step down for anyone while no meetings had been held with any of them by the governors.
The chieftain added, “By now, the governors ought to have started meeting with chairmanship aspirants with a view to getting some of them to step down. But because they are now divided into separate camps, they cannot agree on anything. There has been no negotiation with any chairmanship aspirant.
“They are not even selling forms yet. About 20 committees headed by governors were set up last week. None of them has started anything meaningful and we have just 11 days to go. As things stand, it is doubtful if the March 26 convention will hold. The three most important figures in the convention are the President, the party chairman, and the national secretary and the three of them are not available at the moment.”
It was also learned that as of Monday, the court injunction barring the APC from holding its convention had not yet been vacated.
But Mamman Mohammed, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State told ATGMag that Buni, who is the Chairman, Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee of the APC, was rounding off his treatment in Dubai and would return before the end of the week.
“Mai Mala Buni is still in Dubai receiving the last lap of his treatment as such he didn’t meet the President in the United Kingdom. You know when there is an issue, people tend to speculate but then, it ends in speculation.
“As I speak with you now, Mai Mala Buni is in Dubai receiving the last lap of his treatment. We are expecting him back to the country by the end of this week. Some media houses speculated that he was being expected in the country today but everything ended in speculation.
“But they didn’t meet with the president in the UK because he is still attending to his health issues.”
Meanwhile, Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, has faulted the claim that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), ordered the removal of Governor Buni as chairman of the APC caretaker committee.
Uzodinma, who faulted most of the claims earlier made by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on the attempted leadership change in the APC, stated that only the National Executive Committee of the ruling party can sack Buni and not one man.
The governor, while speaking on Politics Today, a current affairs program on Channels Television, on Monday, said Buhari would not have told El-Rufai or any individuals to remove Buni without the NEC taking the decision.
Uzodinma stated that Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State was only acting on behalf of Buni as Chairman of the CCEPC.
He also stated that the March 26 date set for the national convention of the APC remains sacrosanct, stressing that Buni would remain in charge of the affairs of the party till then
