APC governors pressurise Buhari to force Buni out as APC chair and replace him with Bello

ALL Progressives Congress (APC) governors are believed to have pressurised President Muhammadu Buhari to dump Governor Mala Buni  as the party's interim chairman and replace him with Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State.

Reeling from the effects of not having a stable national working committee, the APC has been governed by a caretaker committee for the last two years since former chairman Adams Oshiomhole was sacked by the courts. Governor Buni has chaired this committee but with the APC wracked by incessant bickering ahead of its party congress this year, he has been shoved aside.

One governor said President Buhari gave the order for Governor Buni to be shoved aside after being influenced by some APC governors. He added that the president had no choice but to order Governor Buni’s removal following the endless crises and turbulence in the governing party ahead of its national convention slated for March 26.

Governor Buni was said to be hatching a plot, backed by three governors, to frustrate the convention where new leadership of the party would be elected. Yesterday, Governor Bello, a member of a member of the APC's caretaker/extraordinary convention planning committee was appointed to steer the affairs of the party.

Subsequently, Governor Bello made a dramatic entry into the party’s national secretariat in Abuja to preside over the caretaker committee meeting. He, thereafter, administered the oath of office on the controversially-elected state chairmen of the party.

To leave no one in doubt about his role, upon arrival at the secretariat, Governor Bello parked his official car on the spot reserved for the national chairman of the party. Addressing the media, Governor Bello did not expressly admit that Governor Buni had been removed but said he had been acting as the caretaker committee chairman since the Yobe governor travelled out of the country for medical attention.

Apparently, Governor  Buni, backed by governors Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, Hope Uzodinma of Imo State and Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, are against the conduct of the much-anticipated national convention. They had thus conceived a plot to serve the APC a court injunction two days to the convention, thus halting the much-clamoured for change in leadership.