National Chairman of the troubled All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Mai Mala Buni, is back from his medical trip abroad, but would not want to be dragged into issues related to the National Secretary, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe, who did not join members of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) who visited him at the Yobe Government Lodge in Abuja.
Akpanudoedehe has been at the centre of a crisis at the party secretariat, with 10 out of 12 CECPC members sacking him in the absence of Buni.
On Akpanudoedehe’s absence at the meeting, the Yobe Governor said: “You know that this is not a formal meeting of the committee. These members of the CECPC just came to welcome me back to the country and wish me well after returning from a medical trip outside the country. So, it is not a formal meeting that one will ask whether the secretary is here or not. However, he was in house earlier today.”
However, Buni applauded the CECPC members on the level of preparations towards the National Convention on March 26.
“You know that since I travelled, the Party has not stopped. His Excellency (Governor of Niger State, H.E. Abubakar Sani Bello) has done very well in managing the affairs of the Party. We are here to discuss the issues going forward. We are now at the finishing line in the preparations for our National Convention which is at hand on March 26. We are putting heads together to achieve this task ahead. I want to emphasise that the March 26 National Convention is sacrosanct.
Governor Buni clarified that the visit was not a formal meeting of the CECPC. “You know that this is not a formal meeting of the committee. These members of the CECPC just came to welcome me back to the country and wish me well after returning from a medical trip outside the country.” He said.
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State, who acted in Buni’s absence and led the CECPCdelegation to Buni, said: “For the past one week, I have been acting as the Chairman of the CECPC and what I can tell you is that we made lots of progress towards our National Convention like we saw in the inauguration of the State Chairmen, adoption of some of the zoning formula, and some of the decisions of the CECPC taken before he (Governor Buni) left the country. I can tell you for free that in the last one week, we have ensured that we are good to go for the National Convention.”