Published December 7, 2019

Kamarudeen Ogundele, Abuja

The All Progressives Congress state chairmen have warned President Muhammadu Buhari to be wary of governors working against the interest of the party because of their 2023 presidential election.

They said the governors were behind the plot to remove the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, because they saw him as a threat to their presidential aspiration.

The chairmen expressed concerns that the concerned governors had been working day and night to get signatures for Oshiomhole’s removal.

The chairman of the Forum of APC State Chairmen, who is the party’s chairman in Zamfara State, Ali Bukar, said these at their meeting with the President at the Presidential Villa on Friday in company with Oshiomhole.

Our correspondent learnt that the President rebuffed attempts by two anti-Oshiomhole chairmen to disrupt the meeting.

It was gathered that the President ordered the two chairmen from the North-West to sit down and behave themselves, while they were trying to protest against the content of the speech by their chairman.

“One of the chairmen had tried to protest that Bukar did not reveal the speech to them before the meeting. But the President asked him to sit down and remain quiet,” the source said.

In his speech, Bukar said, “Mr President, Sir, let me also express our recent worries regarding the activities of some of the governors who are undermining the efforts of the national chairman of our great party, Adams Oshiomhole, to reposition the party by plotting his removal.

“It is more worrisome knowing full well that they are not doing this because the national chairman is not performing his duties, according to the constitution, but they are fighting him due to their 2023 presidential ambitions when it is a notorious fact that Mr President had just commenced his second term in office a few months ago.”

Bukar said the governors in their desperation to nail Oshiomhole worked against APC candidates in the recent governorship elections won by the party in Kogi and Bayelsa states so they would latch on those losses to advocate his removal.

“It is really unfortunate, Your Excellency, that just after we won an additional state in the South-South, which is Bayelsa and consolidated on our hold on Kogi, these governors have been busy collecting signatures, spending our hard-earned resources in both covert and overt campaigns for the removal of Adams Oshiomhole.

“We believe Sir that the affected governors don’t mean well for your administration because after Nigerians voted massively for Your Excellency, all hands should have been on the deck to give Nigerians the desired dividends of democracy and not create crisis where there is none.”

“We want to appeal to Your Excellency to use your good offices to caution these governors so they will not destabilise the party. We need stability at this point and not anything that will cause distraction. And we use this opportunity to reiterate the vote of confidence, which we earlier passed in our national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, and we appreciate Mr President for the cooperation that you have been giving to the NWC.”

Bukar appealed to the President to reward them with board appointments and to stop the trend of appointing members of the opposition in place of hard-working members.

Bukar appealed to the President to reward them with board appointments and to stop the trend of appointing members of the opposition in place of hard-working members.