President Muhammadu Buhari is currently meeting with 16 governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of tomorrow’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting expected to decide the fate of the party’s embattled National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who is under suspension.
The governors, who are attending the meeting, include those of Borno, Lagos, Ogun, Edo, Kebbi, Jigawa, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Ondo, Kano, Osun, Katsina, and Imo, Gombe States.
Out of the 20 APC governors, only four from Kaduna, Yobe, Kogi, and Ekiti are absent.
The move to remove Oshiomhole has divided the critical stakeholders in the party, including governors, members of National Working Committee (NWC) and National Assembly, State party chairmen, among others.
Daily Trust reports that the Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, had earlier today stated that governors under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) would meet on Monday in Abuja as part of efforts to resolve the crisis rocking the party that led to the suspension of its National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
Governor Abdullahi disclosed this when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television programme on Monday morning which was monitored in Lafia.
The APC Governors will also parley with President Muhammadu Buhari to seek his intervention, as leader of the party, with a view to finally resolving the crisis within the ruling party.
He dismissed claims that there was a crisis in the APC, stressing however that there was misunderstanding within the party on the interpretation of the law.
He also admitted that there was a lingering crisis bedeviling the party in Edo State, involving the Governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, and the National Chairman of the APC.
The Governor added that there was need to ensure that the crisis in Edo State is not allowed to snowball into the national structure of the party.
“We are having little misunderstandings within the party on the interpretation of the law and they are having some problems in Edo State between the government and the Chairman of the party.
“And the governors have done as much as they could. They met severally and even they could not be able to resolve it. The problem has persisted but I don’t want that to be the problem of the party as a whole,” he stated.
Sule expressed hope that the meeting today will resolve the misunderstanding within the party.
“I am attending today’s meeting where all the Governors of the APC will sit down and look at this thing directly in the face and say; ‘what is your problem, what is your concern?’
“We cannot be divided. And after that, we will go and meet our President and urge him as the leader of the party to intervene,” he added.
The governor rubbished the insinuations that the crisis within the party is caused by agitations for 2023.
The crisis
An FCT High Court in Jabi, Abuja had suspended Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the APC.
Justice Danlami Senchi, on 4th March, 2020 ordered Oshiomhole to step down pending the determination of the substantive suit seeking his perpetual removal as the APC chairman.
However, Oshiomhole got a Federal High Court sitting in Kano to set aside his suspension as the national chairman of the party.
Tinubu speaks as NEC meets Tuesday
Ahead of tomorrow’s emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday, threw his weight behind the embattled National Chairman of the party, Comrade Oshiomhole.
Tinubu’s position came hours after the chairman of the party’s reconciliation committee, Chief Bisi Akande, urged all the feuding camps to withdraw court cases for peace to reign.
Tinubu played a key role in Oshiomhole’s emergence as the national chairman of the ruling party in June 2018.
Before then, Tinubu had had confrontations with the then chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who enjoyed the support of some APC governors at the time.
