Plot by Atiku, El-Rufai, others to unseat Tinubu will fail, says Ganduje

From Femi Oyelola in Kaduna

The Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, and some chieftains of the party visited former President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that the coalition of Atiku Abubakar, Nasir El-Rufai, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and others to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027 will fail.

Ganduje spoke hours after Abubakar and some opposition figures paid homage to Buhari at his Kaduna residence, at the weekend.

The APC National Chairman while fielding questions from journalists shortly after the meeting with Buhari described the opposition as strange-bird fellows.

Ganduje said the APC is comfortable and will win not only the presidential election, but more governorship seats in the 2027 elections.

“Concerning the group that came to see him, that is not our business. But, I must tell them that history is about to repeat itself; they have a joint venture which will not work. This is because they are just some kind of particles that cannot come together,” he said.

“Well, it’s a game, but we will not reveal our own intrigues and game plan, but I can tell you we are equal to the task.

“The progress President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made is very encouraging and that has made our party much stronger.

“I can tell you that, though we have 21 APC states now, but j in can tell you we are eyeing some more states to come to our fold, either the Governors themselves will come or we go into election and we defeat them.

“So, we are comfortable ahead of 2027, but we are not resting on our oars, because it’s politics and we are used to the game.”

Reacting to the insinuations that Tinubu is engaged in skewed appointments, Ganduje dismissed the insinuation, saying the party was working on the statistics of appointments done by President Tinubu to clear the air on the allegation.

“We are coming up with the true figures of the appointments to show Nigerians that Mr President is not engaged in skewed appointments,” he said.

While assuring Buhari that the APC has been growing from strength to strength, Ganduje said, “Today, we have in our fold the former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, Former Labour Party governorship candidate in Ebonyi state, Edwin Nkwegu, Senator Obinna Ogba, Senator Uche Ekwunife from Anambra state, and thousands of their supporters.

“Others decampees are, former Ondo state governor, Olusegun Mimiko; former Kaduna State governor, Ramalan Yero; former Edo State Deputy Governor, Phillips Shuaibu; two-term Senator representing Edo South and former Clerk of the National Assembly, Senator Matthew Onoghide and Senator Halliru Dauda Jika.

“Your Excellency, in the same vein, the NPP also lost some of its former National Working Committee members to APC, such as Prof. Rufai Alkali, former National Chairman, who led other prominent leaders and members, including Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, former National Organising Secretary; Prof. Bem Angwe, former National Legal Adviser; Dr. Isa Shika, Chairman and the immediate past Secretary, North West; Mikaih Takwat, Kaduna senatorial candidate, and thousands of their supporters to join us. Other notable decampees are Senator Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the Senate and Hon. Yusuf Shittu Galambi, the only NNPP member of the House of Representatives, Gwaram Federal Constituency in Jigawa state. Most recently, Senator Ned Nwoko representing Delta North also joined us.”