Fresh crisis brews in APC as members call for dissolution of Buni-led committee

By TAIWO AMODU, Abuja

Some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have demanded for the dissolution of the party’s caretaker/extraordinary convention planning committee (CECPC) under the leadership of the Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni.

The interim national leadership of the ruling party was put in place last June by the National Executive Committee of the party at its emergency meeting held at the Presidential Villa, sequel to the sack of the National Working Committee led by its erstwhile national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

The aggrieved members under the aegis of APC Concerned Members Forum, accused the Governor Buni led committee of plotting to extend its tenure beyond the six months time given to it by the NEC at its June meeting.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja at the weekend, spokesperson of the group, Ogenyi Okpokwu, said the proposed membership registration to be conducted in the party’s state chapters across the country was a ploy for tenure elongation.

Saturday Tribune checks revealed that on Thursday, Governor Buni along with his counterpart in Jigawa State, Governor Abubakar Badaru and Secretary of the CECPC, Senator John James Akpanudodehe, among other senior party officials, took delivery of items for the registration of members.

The group, which further alleged that the N1.5 billion earmarked for the proposed registration of APC faithful did not pass through procurement process, called for the halt of the exercise.

The groups spokesperson equally faulted claim by the Governor Buni team that it had reconciled aggrieved members in certain state chapters.

He said: “We were shocked when we read it in the newspapers this Thursday that the caretaker committee is embarking on new membership registration. This is outright fraud! How can a party that has existed for over seven years commence a new registration instead of updating the existing register. It is now clear that the intention is to divert 1.5 billion the committee has budgeted for the same exercise without procurement process. The committee is also planning the dissolution of all wards, LGA and state excos and conduct new congresses even though their tenures will not Expire till two years’ time. This must be resisted by all party members.

“As to the committee’s claims of having finished reconciliation in Ekiti and some other states, the public should know that they have further encouraged crises in those state chapters rather than solve problems inherited. A case in point is Zamfara State. Senator Kabir Marafa yesterday exposed the committee’s lies in a statement. He declared that the Buni committee lied and that the two factions in the state are still very much alive each with its secretariat in operation, likewise in Ekiti, Rivers, etc.”

(Saturday Tribune)