The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore, have resigned from their positions ahead of today’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting of the party, allegedly on the orders of President Bola Tinubu.
Their resignation would be formally announced today at the NWC meeting. This might have deepened the internal crisis plaguing APC, as the fate of the duo would be further sealed at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting scheduled to hold on July 19, where their resignation would be accepted and during which a midterm elective convention of the party would be proposed to fill current vacancies.
Adamu had fixed the NWC meeting for July 17, preparatory to the July 18 and 19 Caucus and NEC meetings, respectively.
It was expected that the NWC would present the party’s financial report and also seek approval for those nominated as members of the APC National Advisory Council (NAC).
But Adamu would no longer get a chance to preside over the meeting, as his resignation and that of Omisore are no longer in the realm of speculation.
Inside sources told THISDAY that the president had met with some governors of his party and given them an express order to remove Adamu and Omisore, after detailing his displeasure, especially with the national chairman, who recently confessed to having supported a different candidate for the party’s presidential ticket in the person of Ahmad Lawan, a former Senate President.
Armed with a presidential order, a powerful force, including some serving and former governors, members of the party’s NWC and some party chieftains began the plot to remove the chairman and the secretary, but first by approaching them to honourably resign.
After some back and forth, THISDAY gathered that the duo acceded to resign, knowing the directive was the president’s. They had since last night handed their letters to Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum and Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma.
One of the sources, who confirmed the resignations, said a list of Adamu’s “sins” had been prepared, as instructed and forwarded to Tinubu, who was in Kenya on official assignment and was expected to return to the country today, Monday.
Another party source revealed that a team of party faithful had already met with Adamu last night and persuaded him to resign rather than being shown the exit door at the NEC meeting scheduled for Wednesday, a situation they reckoned might be too embarrassing.
The source said, “The truth is that some bigwigs in the party are no longer comfortable with Adamu. They are bent on removing him and the national secretary. They have compiled their sins, presented them to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and are ready to send them out of office during the NEC meeting on Wednesday.
“But in order to mitigate the impact such removal could have on the party and the new administration, a group of party stalwarts met with the chairman tonight (last night) to advise him to resign rather than being shown the exit door at the NEC meeting slated for Wednesday and he agreed.”
Yet, another source claimed that having seen the handwriting on the wall, Adamu and Omisore decided to throw in the towel ahead of the NWC meeting slated for noon today, to avoid complicating the situation.
The source explained, “A meeting of NWC has been called for Monday at the instance of the national chairman. As usual, no agenda is on the notice of the meeting. The feelers I am getting included the fact that the chairman has been advised to throw in the towel. The truth is that the whole matter is enveloped in a lot of secrecy.”
One other source said the APC leadership had since identified a replacement for Omisore, but what delayed the change in leadership, including the postponement of the caucus meetings slated for penultimate week, was the choice of replacement for Adamu. This further confirmed the fact that their removal was a done deal.
It was also gathered that the NEC meeting was likely to approve a timetable for a midterm elective convention to fill party vacancies.
The source added, “You know we lost the National Welfare Secretary, Deputy National Publicity Secretary resigned, and if the chairman and the secretary are made to resign, the NEC will have to approve a midterm elective national convention of the party to fill the vacant positions.”
