As the national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) nears, President Muhammadu Buhari has denied asking Niger State governor, Abubakar Sani Bello to take over the leadership of the party from his Yobe State counterpart Mai Mala Buni.
The president also denied endorsing a former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Adamu Abdullahi as his annointed candidate for the position of APC national chairman.
These were highpoints of the meeting between President Buhari and his key loyalists over the weekend in London.
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami had last Friday arrived in London to brief the president on happenings in APC, especially after Governor Bello stormed the party’s national secretariat to “take over” from Buni who was away in Dubai on medical vacation.
Buhari, according to a source close to the meetings, was so upset by the briefings he got from Malami that he directed his spokesman Garba Shehu to make the issues clear in a statement over the weekend.
He is said to have declared that he had no favorite candidate for the chairperson, leaving the contest wide open.
According to the source, Buhari made it plain that he had not backed anyone as the party’s chairman.
“Mr. President clearly stated that he has not endorsed any chairmanship candidate and that it was important to keep the contest open for the best candidate to emerge.
“The issues of annointing or not annointing particular candidates have clearly worn down the President. He feels that everyone who wants to run for office should feel free to do so, and that they should put their popularity to the test on the campaign trail to see whether it would bring harmony to the APC,” added the source.
He assured that the APC national convention would hold as planned, and that Buni would preside at the upcoming National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party.
