El-Rufai fingers Buni, others in plot to scuttle APC convention
Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State, alleges that some persons had planned to scuttle the convention of the All Progressives Congress, using a court injunction they had obtained last November.
El-Rufai said this on Channels television programme monitored by TheCornet. He also said former national caretaker committee chairman of the party, Mai Mala Buni knew about the injunction, but decided to keep mute about it.
This medium had reported the ouster of Yobe Governor Buni as the Chairman of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee and his subsequent replacement, the Niger State Governor Sani Bello.
“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 there must not be a convention until his case against the party is disposed of which can take months or years and the lawyers of Buni went to court and agreed with the person and nobody knew about this order.
“It was 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 (convention) and we go ahead with the primaries we might likely have our candidates lose all their seats as the case in Zamfara,” El-Rufai said.
“We reported to the President that no action had been taken on the order. He said the Niger state governor must take over on Monday and we should use whatever legal means necessary to make sure that the convention is delivered.”
El-Rufai also said stated 19 of the 23 APC governors and President Buhari supported the take over. He alleged that two governors opposed to Bello assuming the control of the party are the ones sponsoring fake news.
“Bello has the President’s full backing and the backing of at least 19 of the 23 progressive governors and deputy governors. There are some governors not fully on board and are the ones planting fake stories. Since Monday he took over, we have substantial progress,” said the governor.
The governor also said Buhari approves of some recommendations taking on the zoning of party offices. He mentioned likewise that the Secretary of the caretaker committee, Senator John Akpanudoedehe has been refusing instructions from Governor Bello.
Meanwhile, the acting chairman, Sani Bello has fixed the National Executive Council meeting of the party for March 17. All the governors, the vice president and President Buhari, who is expected to join them virtually, are expected to attend the meeting.
