Yobe Governor, Mai Mala Buni insists he has not abandoned the seat he was elected to govern, but adds rather curiously that he spend at least three days in a month on seat while running around to run the All Progressives Congress ( APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of which he is Chairman of its Caretaker
Quoting an interview he granted the BBC, the News Digest reports: “On the issue of staying, there is no way I can spend a month without spending three or four days in Yobe state. And then even if I return to Yobe, I won’t advertise or make it public that today I will be in Yobe and tomorrow I will be leaving,
“Wait, Let me land, listen to me, I won’t be revealing to the public that I came to Yobe or when I am leaving. And at this age of technology, when will anybody say that there were bunch of files waiting for me? Even before I came here I don’t know the numbers (of files I treated).”
Buni has been roundly criticised for abandoning his primary duty post, preferring to run the embattled ruling party, embroiled in a fresh game of musical chairs where one of its sacked National Working Committee (NWC) members and Vice Chairman, South-South, Hon. Hilliard Eta, has gone to court to pull the seat of his bottom.
Another group, including controversial Zamfara State Senator, Marafa, has asked the Governor to vacate his seat and go to run his state.
Meanwhile other members are opposing the Vice Chairman of the party, Etta, who wants to replace Buni.
Speaking to Journalists in Abuja on Sunday on the issue of the suit filed at Federal High Court Abuja, by the former National Vice Chairman South South, Hon Hilliard Eta, seeking the dissolution of the APC’s CCEPC, Mr Osita Okechukwu, a party chieftain and Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), pleaded with Eta to forthwith withdraw the suit.
“As a foundation ordinary member of our great party, my own take is to ask Hon Hilliard Eta to please as a matter of national urgent importance to withdraw the suit forthwith. Otherwise, without prejudice to court process, is it not an after thought, that five months down the line, Eta kept quiet after the National Working Committee which he belonged was validly dissolved? Where was he when his former National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, endorsed and upheld the dissolution of the NWC in the collective interest of our great party?”
“Why is it now that many prominent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members are migrating to the APC that he woke up from his deep slumber? How come that he can flagrantly disobey Mr President, who admonished us to withdraw all cases for the peace and harmony of our party? For the avoidance of doubt, if he fails to withdraw the suit forthwith, it means that one may not be wrong in suspecting Eta as PDP’s Spy. I’m earnestly pleading with him to beware of how politically incorrect it is being accused of spying for PDP.” Okechukwu said.
Reminded of what Hon Eta told a national daily, “You see, we have respect for Buhari, but we have higher respect for the APC’s Constitution and the Nigerian Constitution”, Okechukwu responded that Eta cannot sincerely and in all honesty when reality check is applied been referring to APC’s Constitution or the Nigerian Constitution.
“Without prejudice to court process, more so when I don’t know the we he is representing or talking about; Eta knows that Section 21 (A) of APC’s Constitution frowns at offences bordering on anti-party activities or any conduct which is likely to embarrass or have adverse effects on the party. Is his suit inspite of his bogus claim, not capable of deceiving the gullible? If he continues in his misadventure, he can’t claim ignorance of how APC’s Constitution views impersonation and how it rates one heading to court against the party without first exhausting all avenues for redress as provided in the constitution.”
Recall that Senator Kabiru Marafa three weeks ago called for a quick convention by the CCEPC or it finds the door. The Zamfara former senator orchestrated the court drama that led the ruling party to lose its stronghold of Zamfara State to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party at the Supreme Court last year.
Buni’s committee last June replaced the Adams Oshiomhole’s National Working Committee, which was sent packing after a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting co-ordinated by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Said Marafa to the Yobe Governor: “Don’t overstretch your luck, we are not afraid of you. Many of us are aware that your appointment is unconstitutional, [section 17(iv) of our party’s constitution is very clear]. We only kept quiet because of the respect we have for Mr President, and the belief that the party needs to open a new page.
“Be informed that any action you take outside your primary mandate of organising a convention that will usher in a new set of executives will be null, void and of no effect whatsoever. You have up to December to do the needful or we chase you out.
“Your state needs you more than the party, go and administer your state, you can’t be governor and chairman of APC at the same time,0 it’s unconstitutional. You equally can’t accuse Chief Oshiomhole of any wrongdoing, because you were part and parcel of all the decisions he took. If there is any mess in APC today, you are part and parcel of it.
“We are eager to witness the emergence of a responsible leadership, a leadership we all can trust, a leadership that will carry every member, every section, every tribe along, not the type that leads by deceit and lies.
“Your state, Yobe, is in deeper crisis than APC. The state needs you more than the party, emulate your senior brother and colleague in Borno. Your agenda will collapse in a similar way the ones before yours collapsed”.