Tobias Sylvester
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai said the lawyers of Yobe state governor, Mai Mala Buni, had colluded with some fifth columnists to destroy the national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with a court injunction which he described as a “nuclear weapon”.
Why Buni Was Removed As APC Caretaker Chairman
During an interview with Channels Television, El-Rufai revealed that Buni had perfected plans to scuttle the party’s national convention in order to remain as caretaker chairman.
According to him, some APC governors discovered this plan and informed President Muhammadu Buhari who ordered the immediate removal of Buni and the installment of Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State as the acting chairman.
El-Rufai said the court order obtained by Buni was a “hidden nuclear weapon” which he intended to use to postpone the APC convention till May which have hampered the party’s chances in the 2023 general election.
He said the court injunction which was obtained in November last year, was never challenged by Buni. Rather, Buni’s lawyers agreed with the position of those who instituted the suit.
El-Rufai said, “We got to know of a court order last year. It was obtained in November. A member of the party went to court to say that there must be no convention until his case against the party is disposed of, which can take months or years.
“The lawyer of the party and the lawyers of Mai Mala Buni went to court and agreed with the petitioner and got this order. Nobody knew about this order.
“It was never brought to the caretaker committee. It was sort of hidden as a hidden nuclear weapon to destroy the convention, which further made us believe that there are fifth columnists in the party that want to bring this party down, because if we don’t have an elected executive committee of the party and we go ahead to have primaries, we are likely to have our candidates lose all their seats as we saw in Zamfara state.
“When we reported to the president and said no action (referring to the convention planning) had been taken, he said governor Abubakar Sani Bello must take over on Monday and we should use whatever legal means necessary to make sure that this convention is delivered.
“It was the president’s order to us as governors. He (referring to Niger governor) has the president’s full backing and the backing of at least 19 of the APC governors.
‘There are some governors who are not fully on board. They are the ones planting fake stories that this one has resigned and that one has not resigned. You get all kinds of stories on social media.”
Meanwhile, APC has zoned the office of its National Chairman and National Secretary to the North Central and South-West respectively ahead of its national elective convention fixed for March 26.
