There is a growing tension over the fate of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and the party’s National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore, at the forthcoming meeting of the National Executive Committee on July 11.
Multiple sources told Saturday PUNCH that they believed that the NEC meeting, which was long overdue, would address the anomalies noticeable in the party since last year.
“A number of the NWC members and party chieftains are upbeat and looking forward to the meeting. We are waiting to see how Adamu will defend himself against most of the allegations raised by (Malam Salihu) Lukman, including his running the party like a personal property without the input of NWC members and failure to account for how much the APC realised from the sale of nomination forms to aspirants at all levels in the primaries.
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“Adamu has also been accused of anti-party activities on two occasions. The first has to do with his endorsement of former Senate President Ahmad Lawan as the consensus candidate in the build-up to the APC convention.
“The second happened recently during the National Assembly leadership election where virtually every member of the NWC knew he did not support some of Tinubu’s adopted candidates,” one of the sources said.
A close ally of Adamu, who craved anonymity, however, defended him, saying Lukman was acting the script of certain persons who wanted the national chairman and the secretary out at all costs. Isn’t it obvious that this was their game plan all along? Nevertheless, I cannot comment much because we have not seen the actual agenda for the NEC meeting,” he stated.
The development is coming three days after the ruling APC summoned its National Caucus and the long-awaited NEC meetings for July 10 and 11 to douse the crisis rocking the party.
The meetings, which are expected to serve as avenues to resolve the lingering crisis rocking the party, may also be the deciding factor to determine Adamu and Omisore’s fate.
The crucial sessions of the two statutory organs of the party will be chaired by President Bola Tinubu, while Vice-President Kashim Shettima, former President Muhammadu Buhari, past and present APC governors as well as former and current Senate president, Speakers of House of Representatives of the party, National Working Committee and other party stakeholders in attendance.
The announcement was signed by the national secretary of the APC and posted on the party’s official Twitter handle.
The North-West National Vice Chairman of APC, Mallam Salihu Lukman, has been at loggerheads with Adamu, who he accused of running the party like an army barrack with him as the garrison commander.
Two months ago, the Kaduna politician had dragged both Adamu and Omisore, over what he termed a ‘breach of the party’s constitution.’
Lukman also averred that the two-term governor of Nasarawa State reduced the NWC members to a mere rubber stamp to validate decisions he singlehandedly took.
But as the internal wrangling gradually degenerated into noticeable cracks within the party, a committee was urgently set up to beg Lukman to withdraw his lawsuit with a pledge that all his grievances would be addressed, including the call for the crucial NEC meeting.
Reacting to the recent call for the NEC meeting on Friday, former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Yekini Nabena, described it as a welcome development.
Nabena said it would be interesting to see what would be discussed at the National Caucus meeting, which he noted had not been held for many years.
(Punch)
