Buhari Cannot Sack Buni As APC National Caretaker Chairman, Says Party Chieftain
- The ruling APC has continued to be bedevilled with internal crises triggered by varying and varied contending forces
- Political watchers say these forces are struggling for the soul of the party ahead of its national convention slated for Saturday, March 26, other things being equal.
- A member of the party has said insinuations that the president can sack Mai Mala Buni as chairman of the APC is false
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FCT, Abuja - Ben Abdul, a constitutional and international analyst and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot sack Governor Mai Mala Buni as the national caretaker chairman of the ruling party.
Abdul made this known in a statement sent to journalists on Monday, March 7 while reacting to the lead story in a major national newspaper that President Buhari had sacked Buni, who is also the current Yobe state governor.
Source: Facebook
He said:
“The speculative story did not end there; it also asserted in an audacious fashion that the president, before departing for London, on Sunday evening, had ordered Niger state governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, to be sworn in as the caretaker chairperson of the party before the close of the day.
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“Pure speculation meant to further plunge the party into an avoidable pit! Of course, some powerful blocs within the party are the ones pushing this narrative using a section of the media as their vector.
“Curiously, it was only the newspaper and its broadcast arm that was trending the falsehood that the purported sack is all about before the Nigerian social media ecosystem caught it like a wildfire and it has since assumed a life of its own. A bold lie becoming a speculative truth, all within a space of hours!
“Well, the party has responded to the falsehood denying any change in its leadership through a statement by the national secretary of the party, Senator James Akpanudoedehe.
“Be that as it may, even though the party has done the needful, which is dismissing the paper's speculation as sheer falsehood and therefore should be disregarded, there is still a need to further offer some clarification regarding the falsity of the story.
“This is because no matter what the party may do to disabuse the minds of Nigerians from believing the story, some unsuspecting members of the public will still believe it.
“Against the background of the above, it needs to be stated without equivocation that President Muhammadu Buhari has no power whatsoever to unilaterally sack Governor Buni as the caretaker chairman of the party.
“I am cocksure the president could not have done that because he is conversant with the law and the constitution of the party.”
He said the only organ of the party that can remove Buni as the chairman of the party is the National Executive Committee which is the highest decision-making organ of the party, adding that President Buhari is not the NEC of the party.
Abdul said even if the president does not want Buni in the position, the highest he can do, is to covertly lobby those in NEC to find a way to remove Buni.
Legit.ng gathered that according to Article 13.3(v) of the APC Constitution 2014, only the NEC of the party can exercise such control and take such disciplinary actions on Buni or his committee if there is any allegation of infraction against him or any other member of the party.
Also, Article 13.2(vi) of the same Constitution quoted in the preceding paragraph explicitly emphasizes that it is the same NEC that can appoint any person it may deem fit and assign powers and functions to them accordingly.
Abdul added:
“All said and done, the paper's speculation that Buhari has sacked Buni flies in the face of law as codified in the APC Constitution as well as logic.
“There's no truth in it and the hidden forces pushing such a fallacious narrative know that it is a kite that cannot fly and thus has been shredded to pieces.”
Nabena to Sani Bello: You’ve no power to call for NEC meeting
Legit.ng had earlier reported that the deputy national publicity secretary of the APC, Yekini Nabena, on Sunday, March 6 has called on the Niger state governor, Sani Bello to stop his plan to call for a NEC meeting without the authorisation of Buni.
Nabena alleged that the plot by the Niger state governor to destabilise the APC has been on for a while because of his vice-presidential ambition in 2023, hence his plan to convey a NEC meeting.
In a statement sent to Legit.ng on Sunday, March 6, the APC chieftain said Governor Bello is just an ordinary member of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee and not the chairman or secretary.
APC convention: Respect party supremacy, Nabena tells aggrieved chieftains
Legit.ng had earlier reported that Nabena sounded a note of caution to some members he described as "fifth columnists and their sponsors" against the national leadership of the ruling party.
He described the recent activities of some APC members as an act of insubordination against the party leadership.
Nabena warned that those sponsoring campaigns of calumny on national television and in other media platforms against APC national leadership should know that national convention will come and go but the damage they would have cost the party's image will remain.
Source: Legit.ng
