With the confirmation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of attending an emergency meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) billed for tomorrow, if it receives another letter signed by national chairman of the party’s Caretaker/ Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State and national and secretary, Sen John James Akpanudoedehe. The battle for the soul of the APC is won and lost, at least till after the Party’s national convention.
As the members of the Buni-led CECPC reclaimed and took full charge of Buhari House, the party’s national secretariat, at Blantyre Street, Wuse 11, Abuja yesterday, they immediately announced that its NEC meeting would be held tomorrow, Thursday, as scheduled ahead of the party’s national convention.
The NEC meeting billed for tomorrow will be virtual as the Chairman; Governor Buni who will chair the event is yet to return to the country even as President Muhammadu Buhari will also join virtually from London where he is on medical vacation.
The anti Buni forces found themselves in a quandary when INEC, in a letter to the party, had earlier noted that the party violated the 21-day notice required by the new Electoral Law for such a meeting. The commission also said the letter sent to it was not signed by the recognised chairman and secretary of the party’s caretaker committee. This development threw them into confusion thus making way for the Buni-led members to plan a counter attack to reclaim the Party machinery.
Equally helpful to Buni was the briefing President Buhari received from some of his ministers on the implications of the leadership impasse in the party on the 2023 general elections.
President Buhari, it was reported, had directed that Buni should return as the chairman of the caretaker committee with a view to leading the party to its national convention billed for the 26th of this month.
Meanwhile, after getting a new lease of life following President Muhammadu Buhari’s intervention in the leadership crisis rocking the party, national secretary of the caretaker committee, Akpanudoedehe, who had angrily stormed out of the party secretariat last week returned to the party’s secretariat yesterday amid cheers from workers at the secretariat and some party members.
Governor Buni’s aides also resumed at the national secretariat to take full control of the place, though Buni himself was yet to resume.