The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari and 19 governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress approved the removal of Governor Mai Mala Buni as Chairman of the party’s caretaker committee following his decision to secretly obtain a court order to scuttle the March 26 National Convention.
This was contrary to the position of on Tuesday of Senators elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
The Senators reached the conclusion after three hours of closed door session, where they said Buni will resume as the Caretaker Chairman of the party once he returns from his his medical trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
However in an interview with Channels TV on Wednesday night, Governor El-Rufai said Governor Buni has been removed as the Chairman and that the Governor of Niger State, Abubakar Sani Bello, has the backing of President Buhari and 19 Governors to take over and organise the party’s National Convention on March 26.
El-Rufai said that the President was disappointed when he discovered that Buni has procured a court order to stop the party’s Convention because of personal interests, adding: “President Buhari has given us the marching order to vacate the order and organise the party’s Convention.”
He said: “Buni had been removed, National Secretary had been handled appropriately by APC CECPC.
“Buni will not return to the party as National Chairman again.
“He can be back to his post as Governor.
“The Governors and President directed Governor Buni to swear in state Excos elected months ago.
“He never followed the order.
“Mai Bala Buni hid vital information from us.
“An interim order restraining the party from conducting APC Convention and nobody knew about it.
“It was like hiding a nuclear weapon for the party.
“So we had to move fast and remove Buni
“Nineteen Governors are with us out of 22.
“Some two to three Governors who were not with us were planting fake news here and there.
“They want to make sure we never had a convention so that APC will not have candidate like they did in Zamfara.
“We wouldn’t allow that.
“All the Governors have moved to Abuja to correct things.
“Sani Bello is our Acting Chairman and he had reduced the convention committee to a manageable size.”