Following his alleged resignation as National Chairman of his ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu has now broken his silence on the matter.
Vanguard had reported that ahead of this week's meeting of the National Caucus and National Executive Committee NEC of the APC, there is a gang up of opposition against Senator Adamu and National Secretary of the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore.
Vanguard gathered that some bigwigs of the party had been going about with a list of alleged "sins" committed by Adamu against Asiwaju Bola Tinubu weeks before the latter declared his interest to vie for the presidency last year.
"Consequently, there are some forces within the party who are likely to meet with Adamu on Sunday night or early Monday to pressure him into resigning rather than been shown the exit door" said a party official privy to the internal workings of the party.
He said the NEC meeting slated for Tuesday is likely to approve a timetable for a midterm elective convention to fill party vacancies.
"As you know, many of the new state governors have not made all their appointments. Even at that, some party officials have been appointed into government.
"At the national level, it is very likely that some national officers or members of the National Working Committee NWC would be appointed into government. Once that is done, there will be vacancies which would be filled through the convention. The convention could also provide a window to get Adamu out", said the party source.
According to him, the move to oust Adamu would also see Omisore being eased out of the equation as some aggrieved members of the NWC have consistently accused him of running the party alone with Adamu.
He said the controversial audit report of the party would be part of the issues to use against Adamu.
"Under our constitution, only the NEC of the party can appoint an external auditor to audit the accounts of the party but Adamu, after being forced to render financial accounts, decided to enlist his own auditor, bypassing NEC. He thereafter presented the report of his auditors to the NWC for ratification. The party has an auditor. Adamu should simply have allowed him to do his job and present his report to the NWC. After that, the NWC will go through the report of the National Auditor, deliberate on it and present to NEC, which has the powers to appoint an external auditor to go through our accounts. But this has not been the case", the source added.
Indeed, there were speculations on Sunday night that Adamu had "resigned in principle" even before the said meeting.
While he did not respond to messages seeking his confirmation of the report, party spokesman, Felix Morka also went mute on the issue.
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'We can't comment in what we don't know'
An NWC member said they, like other party men and women, were also shocked by the report of Adamu's resignation and that they cannot comment on what they have no knowledge of.
"As expected, the NWC is supposed to meet on Monday ahead of Tuesday's Caucus meeting and Wednesday's NEC meeting. Adamu hasn't told us anything about his resignation or otherwise".
Contacted by Daily Trust, Adamu declined comments pending the return of President Bola Tinubu from the African Union AU meeting in Kenya.
"I won't talk about the issue because the president is away," Adamu said.
