Moves To Oust Adamu Begins As APC Fixes Snap NEC Meeting

It appears Abdullahi Adamu’s continuous stay as National Chairman of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, has come to an end as the party has fixed July 11 for its National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting after much pressure.

Adamu has been under pressure to call for NEC meeting, the second highest organ of the party after the National Congress, but has been evasive for almost two years according to some aggrieved members of the party.

One of his critics and opponents who has divided the party, the National Vice Chairman West, Salihu Lukman, has accused Adamu of working against holding NEC meetings to avoid his ouster.

Sources confirmed to THE WHISTLER on Thursday that President Bola Tinubu and his men have finally decided to take part in the affairs of the party and may oust Adamu during the meeting.

Some members of the party’s NEC believe Adamu’s stay is untenable with the coming of Tinubu over what some of them called “inglorious role in announcing” former Senate President, Ahmad Lawan as the choice of former president, Muhammadu Buhari for the ticket of the party.

In the run up to the national convention of the party to choose its presidential candidate in June 2022, Adamu had returned from the presidential villa and quickly announced Lawan as Buhari’s choice.

Flanked by the party’s National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore and a handful of members of the National Working Committee, Adamu announced Lawan as the president’s choice despite agreement that the presidential candidate must come from the south.

That set the tone for an angry campaign as the leading candidate, Tinubu launched repeated attacks against the president and the party leadership.

Supported by more than half of the governors on the platform of the party from the North, Tinubu won the ticket and the presidential election.

Still, Adamu came under increasing scrutiny for lack of commitment to the Tinubu campaign and the political differences between the pair widened.

THE WHISTLER reports that there had been no love lost between them before the coming of the APC in 2015 as both belonged to two different political parties and camps.

Until the APC emerged, Adamu was a strong member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on which platform he served as governor of Nasarawa State and senator.

Tinubu at different times was a founding member of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, Action Congress, AC, Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and APC.

He was elected a senator in 1993 and governor in 1999 on the platform of the AD.

While the president has maintained his disinterestedness towards the affairs of the party since his emergence, his men began to work for Adamu’s ouster even as internal opposition to Adamu’s stay has grown louder and louder to give the president and his men the needed pretext to pay Adamu back in his own coin.

Lukman has carried that needed banner against Adamu’s poor leadership and urged his removal.

He has frequently accused the former Nasarawa Governor of “embezzlement, running one man show, anti-APC policy” among others.

He had said in March, “Recall that our NEC has not met for more than a year. We have managed the party since April 2022 without an approved budget as required under Article 13.3A(xiv) of the APC constitution.

“No report of any kind to any organ, not even the NWC. Yet, Article 13.4(ii) and (iv) require the NWC to submit quarterly reports of activities and finances covering income and expenditure to NEC.”

He added that, “Billions of Naira have been expended based on discretionary decisions of the National Chairman and National Secretary. Till date, no member of the NWC can claim to know how much is in all the accounts of the party outside Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore and perhaps the National Treasurer and National Financial Secretary.”

Sources said it’s time up for Adamu and if a total restructuring would be made, it would also affect Omisore.

A serving state chairman of the APC, who’s a member of NEC, in one of the southwest states, simply told this medium on Thursday that, “We are not pleased with Omisore, our brother. He’s in cahoots with Adamu against the president.

“They may go as far as some of us are concerned but let’s see as it’s a few weeks away from the NEC meeting.”

The meeting which is fixed for July 11 according to the announcement by Omisore was pursuant to articles 12.5 and 25.2(i) of the APC constitution.

Those called for the meeting are the president, vice-president, senate president, speaker of the house of representatives, national chairman, deputy chairs (north and south), national secretary, national legal adviser, national treasurer, national organising secretary, national youth leader, and national leader of persons living with disabilities are among those invited.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo, the immediate past vice-president, are expected to be in attendance according to the constitution of APC and the announcement by Omisore.