APC crisis: Governor Buni, Secretary vow not to quit without Buhari’s pronouncement

•Says Bello, others dropping falsely Buhari’s name to legitimize party takeover

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

The embattled ex chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Governor Mai Mala Buni, and his secretary, John James Akpanudoedehe, have vowed not to resign their positions without President Muhammadu Buhari making an open pronouncement to declare that they have been sacked.

Caretaker Committee Secretary, Akpanudoedehe said this yesterday while fielding questions from journàlists at the party Secretariat, shortly after the news went viral that he has resigned his position and packed his belongings out of the APC National secretariat.

Dashing back furiously into the APC media center after he had closed for the day, Akpanudoedehe said you can shave a man in his absence, adding that what the media reported was like saying that a man is dead when he is still alive.

“I have read in social media that I have resigned as Secretary of the APC. I want to state that it is not true, that I did not resign. If I had resigned, you would have seen my letter of resignation written by me. Someone cannot just say somebody is dead when he is alive.

“I am not bigger than the party, or bigger than the President, who is the leader of the country. I am waiting for my national chairman to come back.

“We have done so much for this party. When we inherited this party, if you can recall, it was at its lowest ebb. We built the party and recovered a lot of grounds. We were able to register 41 million members. And we bought this secretariat of the party.

“We have been able to recover what we lost. We lost and brought in a lot of governors. All the States we lost, we brought in two weeks.

“We have been able to go round this country and the Constitution that was a difficult thing to do, we have done it in less than one year.

“We have done reconciliation, ward, local governments and state congresses. And we are about to do the national convention. This is not the first time you are seeing a power play.

“I am waiting for the Chairman. If we have a directive from the President that we should resign, we are not bigger than the President, we will do so, if we hear from him. Somebody cannot say go and announce he is resigning. Like MKO Abiola used to say, you don’t shave someone’s head in his absence. So, we have done so much.

“And you will agree with me that when we came in, this place was like a dead zone. The secretariat was moved to a private home. But we were committed to what we were doing”, he said.

He said “I am stating here that the breaking news is not from me. I don’t know who announced it.”

Speaking on his relationship with the Niger Governor, Abubakar Bello, Akpanudoedehe said “Our relationship is very cordial. I don’t have any load. I come here and I leave. I have never changed my furniture. The photograph is official. I have not packed anything. I have not received any letter asking me to resign.