Richard Anyebe
National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu has broken his silence after news of his resignation broke at the weekend.
He spoke to Daily Trust on Monday morning over the news which has since gone viral.
Adamu, who is a founding member of the APC, said he would not comment on the matter until President Bola Tinubu returns from the African Union (AU) meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.
“I won’t talk about the issue because the president is away,” Adamu was reported to have said to the paper on the phone.
According to presidential spokesman, Dele Alake, Tinubu, who left the country on Saturday is expected to return to the county at the end of the meeting. He is being expected any moment from now
Reports say a founding member of the APC disclosed that the party’s national chairman resigned when he got wind that two influential personalities around the president had mobilised against him ahead of the National Caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings of the party slated for Tuesday and Wednesday.
The party had fixed July 10 and 11 for its National Caucus and NEC meetings to iron out critical issues affecting it and the crisis within the National Working Committee (NWC).
However, the meetings were later postponed and rescheduled.
“He resigned because they have started to collate signatures to impeach him during the forthcoming meetings. He resigned to save himself from humiliation,” the top politician said.
Another source was quoted to have said Adamu sent his resignation letter to the Chief of Staff of the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, around 4 pm on Sunday.
“He has resigned. The resignation letter signed by him has been sent to the villa. The letter was addressed to President Tinubu. But since the president is away in Kenya for the AU meeting, the letter was sent to his chief of staff,” the source said.
Adamu spent barely 15 months in office. Towards the end of his tenure, he fell out with some key members of the party over the principal officers of the National Assembly, whom he rejected, but he reportedly let go off the issue following the intervention of Tinubu.
After an Aso Rock meeting, Adamu described the row over the National Assembly principal officers as a “family affair”
In other news, Kanyi Daily reported that Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu has announced plans to strengthen the ECOWAS Standby Force to deter coups and combat terrorism in the sub-region.
Tinubu, who is the current ECOWAS chairman, spoke on Sunday in Nairobi, Kenya.
