President Muhammadu Buhari’s master stroke, by agreeing to the convocation of a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which he rallied other party leaders to attend, yesterday arrested the drift of the ruling party into an abyss.
The meeting, which held at the State House, Abuja, despite opposition from the National Working Committee (NWC), pulled the break on the spiralling leadership crisis rocking the party with the dissolution of the NWC.
In its place, the NEC, which ratified the president’s proposal to dissolve the NWC, also accepted his suggestion to raise a 13-member caretaker committee, which is now headed by Yobe State Governor, Mr. Mai Mala Buni, a former national secretary of the party.
However, the dissolution did not go down well with the NWC, headed by Adams Oshiomhole, who is now on suspension, as it said it would consult its lawyers, possibly to file a lawsuit to challenge the action.
At the virtual NEC meeting, attended by Buhari, the 13-member committee, which has Senator Akpan Udoedehe as its secretary, was also dubbed as the Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee and saddled with the task of organising a convention to elect a new leadership for the party.
Other members of the party include the Governor of Niger State, Abubakar Sani Bello, and his Osun State counterpart, Gboyega Oyetola.
The committee has a six-month duration to run the party affairs and organise a national convention through which members of the next NWC of the party will be elected.
The NEC meeting was called by a former Deputy National Secretary of APC, Chief Victor Giadom, in his capacity as the acting national chairman of the party following a range of crises, which followed the decision of the Court of Appeal on June 16 that upheld the ruling of an Abuja High Court that had earlier upheld the suspension of Oshiomhole by his ward in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State.
SamaquaGist.com 