THE governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) appear divided over the actual interpretations of both the majority and dissenting judgements of the Supreme Court in the appeal filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) in the last October governorship election in Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN).
The unanimity by the APC governors, which have maintained that the apex court judgment did not fault the eligibility of Yobe State governor and Chairman, APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Mai Mala Buni to serve both elective and party positions, concurrently, suffered a setback on Sunday at the meeting of the Progressive Governors Forum, held in Abuja.
Ondo State governor and Chairman, Southern Governors Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu, whose victory was challenged by the PDP candidate, faulted the position of his colleagues, who have since maintained that Governor Buni’s eligibility to hold party and elective offices, concurrently was not faulted by the majority judgment.
Akeredolu at the meeting, which had a majority of the governors in attendance, told his colleagues pointedly to stop playing the Ostrich, as he insisted that the future of the APC was in jeopardy if Buni was allowed to continue to hold forte at the party secretariat.
Checks revealed that the PDP candidate, in his petition, argued that Buni, according to section 183 of the constitution and article 17(4) of the APC, could not function both as governor and acting chairman of the APC concurrently.
A source revealed that the APC governors were disturbed by Akeredolu’s submission, who reportedly challenged his Kebbi State counterpart and chairman of the PGF, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, for allegedly misleading his other colleagues on the true interpretations of both judgments of the apex court.
The source further disclosed that the Ondo governor did not stay with his colleagues to conclude the meeting.
He said: “Our meeting was to discuss the Supreme Court verdict, as well as its implication on the national caretaker committee via a viz the last ward congresses of the party. Honestly, we are getting more openings of further legal issues as we met last night.
“For the first time since the verdict, we are having a very frank talk on the possible dangers and banana peels. You know the man at the centre of it all, the Ondo governor, disagreed with all of us, who are of the opinion that nothing was wrong with the current arrangement being led by Buni at the national level.
“Though he came in late due to what he cited as flight delay, Aketi was frank and very legal in his analysis of the verdict that the party is not on a strong footing. Mind you, whether we like him or not, he is a very senior Senior Advocate of Nigeria; he cannot wish our party evil, so we have to weigh several options, one of which is to suspend deliberations on the matter until the president returns from his medicals.”
The source revealed that to avoid widening of cracks, the meeting nominated two governors, from the SouthWest and North-Central to appeal to Akeredolu to let go of any perceived bad blood between him and the Yobe governor.
“The Ondo State governor accused Governor Buni of his indifference to his case while he was in court with PDP and Jegede,” the source claimed.
All the APC governors from the South West were in attendance along with their counterparts from Kebbi, Jigawa, Zamfara, Plateau, Kogi, Ebonyi, Cross Rivers, Yobe, Nasarawa, Katsina, Kano and Kwara states. Governors of Borno, Kaduna and Niger states were represented by their deputies.
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