Normalcy returned to the headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday as the secretary of the party’s caretaker/extra-ordinary convention planning committee (CECPC) Senator John Akpanudoedehe returned amid tight security and jubilation.
Some state governors had unsuccessfully tried to remove the caretaker committee led by Governor Mai Buni of Yobe State who is currently out of the country for medicals.
According to Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, the governors had the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari to install a new chairman, Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger. But the president instead called for order when he spoke about the matter.
Following word from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) about the invalidity of Bello’s chairmanship, Akpanudoedehe returned to the party secretariat on Tuesday morning to applause from the staff.
In his statement released afterwards, Akpanudoedehe said that “the CECPC is intact and functional as originally constituted. That delivering a seamlessly successful National Convention for the APC on March 26, 2022 is top on priority for the CECPC and we shall continue to execute such assignments as are legal pending the return of the Chairman who is on his way back to the country and shall resume Office on arrival with the full support of all members and other stakeholders.
“We are grateful to INEC for her firm guidance in the entire circumstances. Meanwhile, the party has engaged a team of senior lawyers to address a purported court order halting the planned APC National Convention.”
He called on the judiciary to give the matter “the needed and expedient attention in our bid to vacate the purported Court order and allow for the conduct of a transparent and rancour-free National Convention deserving of our great party, APC.”
