Oshiomhole faces fresh storms in APC, over Bulama, Issa-Onilu

Oshiomhole, El-Rufai at the inauguration of the councils in Abuja on Friday

From left: APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole; acting National Secretary of APC, Chief Victor Giadom; and Chairman, APC National Governorship Campaign Committee for Kogi State, Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, during the inauguration of the partyís National Governorship Campaign Committee for Kogi and Kaduna State, at the APC Secretariat in Abuja on Friday Photo: Hogan Bassey/NAN

Adams Oshiomhole: new troubles from Yobe and Giadom

Fresh crisis opened on two fronts for the embattled APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole on Sunday night,  with Yobe state kicking against the appointment of Architect Bulama Waziri as acting national secretary.

Victor Giadom, the deputy national secretary is the arrowhead of the second crisis as he called Bulama and publicity secretary Lanre Issa-Onilu impostors, who should be arrested by the police.

Giadom, who is in league with the rebels fighting Oshiomhole and who called an emergecny NEC meeting for 17 March, questioned the locus of  some of the signatories to the notice that countered his own.

He called Bulama, who was appointed last Wednesday as acting national secretary  and Lanre Issa Onilu, who replaced Bolaji Abdullahi as publicity secretary in 2019, as impostors, because their appointments are yet to be ratified by the convention of the party . He said they could not therefore undermine the notice of a meeting that he issued.

“The National Secretariat of APC had just intercepted a document being circulated in the Social Media to the undermining the notice of our NEC meeting of 17th March 2020 that was already announced.

“The notice being circulated was printed on the APC letterhead and signed by the trio of Babatunde Ogala, National Legal Adviser; One Lanre Isa-Onilu, acting as National Publicity Secretary and one Arc Bulama Waziri purported to be the National Secretary.

“We invite the Security Agencies to refer to Article 20 of our Party constitution as an attestation that neither Onilu nor Bulama are officials of the Party as they never went through any convention as required by Article 20 of the constitution which demands that they be democratically be elected. Even where there is consensus, convention must still ratify.

“Lanre Isa-Onilu was smuggled into the National Working Committee by Adams Oshiomhole in the same manner he tried to smuggle Arc Waziri Bulama last week after he was ordered by the Court to vacate the office and keep away from the Secretariat.

“They are both impersonators and should be arrested immediately. For all intent and purposes, the Nigeria Police is invited to request for list of National Officers from INEC as a confirmation of the fraud being perpetrated by the hitherto National Chairman”, Giadom said.

From Yobe also came another  storm over  Bulama Waziri’s appointment as National Secretary of the party, just like Ekiti state also kicked against the appointment of former governor Abiola Ajimobi as deputy president, South, in replacement for Adeniyi Adebayo, who is now the minister of Industries.

In a statement titled ‘OUR POSITION ON THE APC NATIONAL SECRETARY’  signed by State Secretary of the Party, Alhaji Abubakar Bakabe, the chapter condemned what it termed as abuse and contravention of norms and established procedures and processes of the party in electing and choosing leaders.

According to the Yobe State APC, the natural successor of Hon. Mai Mala Buni as the National Secretary having been elected as Governor should have come from Yobe State as it was in the past with Alhaji Lai Mohammed and his two successors.

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The statement regretted that Yobe is treated with “wanton recklessness” despite her huge electoral value to the party in all elections, while calling on the party to follow the established precedence.

The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to media publications on the purported attempt to foist Arch. Bulama Waziri as National Secretary, through abuse and contravention of the norms,  procedures and established processes of the party.

“The APC had in the last years been noted for its respect for rules and procedures, which made  the party different from others and  became a role model of due process in party politics in Nigeria.

“The party in its wisdom deliberately adopted a zoning policy to accommodate and give every part of Nigeria a sense of belonging and participation. Hence, it zoned its national offices to the six geo-political zones.

“The office of the National Secretary was zoned to the North east and Hon. Mai Mala Buni was subsequently elected as the pioneer substantive National Secretary of the party. At the expiration of their first tenure, Mai Mala Buni was re-elected for a second term of office in 2018 until his resignation when he was elected Executive Governor of Yobe state in 2019.

“Following the established precedence and norms of the party, it is only right for Yobe state to produce an acting National Secretary  for the party pending the next convention, as it was in the case of Kwara state, when Alhaji Lai Mohammed was appointed as Honourable minister, he was replaced by Alhaji Bolaji Abdullahi as the party’s National Publicity Secretary.

“Similarly, when Bolaji Abdullahi defected to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), he was replaced by yet another Kwaran  Mr Lanre Issa for the same office. This has remained the norm and procedure in the party.

“The purported reports suggesting Arch. Bulama Waziri as a replacement to Governor Mai Mala Buni for the office of the National Secretary, gives us a great concern as to why some people suddenly want to change the laid down procedures of the APC and to short change Yobe state in the national political equation of the party.

“It is equally disheartening that, as a major stakeholder of the party and one of the leading states that had consistently produced mass votes to the party, Yobe should be treated with such wanton recklessness and in flagrant abuse to the existing procedure and practice.

“It has become quite necessary to draw the attention of our great party not allow some forces filled with personal and selfish agenda to draw the party to the path of self destruction. We demand that what is due to the state should be given to the state in the interest of peace and unity of our great party.

“We are optimistic that the leadership will not allow such brazen act of injustice to prevail and set a dangerous precedence in the affairs of the APC”, the statement read.

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