Buhari asked the party’s NEC to henceforth avoid taking decisions capable of leading the party into playing into the hands of the opposition.
He said this in his opening remarks at the ongoing NEC Meeting of the party in Abuja.
According to him, the tenure extension was at variance with the party’s constitution as well as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He said he had received legal advice from the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice on the matter.
The APC caucus meeting was not about my removal – National chairman, John Oyegun
The National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun has said that the meeting of the party’s national caucus on Monday night discussed more serious issues but not about his removal from office.
Odigie-Oyegun, who fielded questions from State House correspondents on the outcome of the meeting which was chaired by President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, said the meeting discussed the party’s report on true federalism. He dismissed the insinuation that the members of the national caucus deliberated on a court case instituted against him by some aggrieved members of the party.
Some members of the APC had dragged the national chairman to court over what they described as “illegal tenure elongation’’ Others alleged that Odigie-Oyegun had been running the accounts of the party without recourse to majority of national officers of the party. But the party chairman said that the issue of his removal from office as being advocated by the aggrieved members had now become history. “No, the meeting concluded the agenda we started the last time we met which we did not complete. Today we discussed true federalism, something a lot more serious, a lot more serious,’’ he added.
Also commenting on the outcome of the meeting, the speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara said that it was a routine meeting of the party to set the agenda for the NEC holding on Tuesday. “All I can tell you is that there is a meeting which is routine and the caucus meeting is determined to set up an agenda of the NEC meeting tomorrow. And all I can tell you is that the agenda is well set. “I believe that it will be the responsibility of NEC to decide and after a decision is taken, some of our faithful members will address the press. “I don’t think it is in my place to divulge what was discussed. Tactically, it is an agenda setting meeting and we have had that meeting but the main meeting will take place tomorrow,’’ Dogara said.
Asked whether he was worried over the elongation of the tenure of the party chairman, Dogara said, “It is not a question of my being worried because I am just one perhaps of millions of APC members. “Like I said, certainly it’s going to be an agenda for the consideration of NEC, whatever NEC decides, that will be binding on all of us as faithful members of the party.” Also, The President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, described the meeting as “a good meeting’’, adding that members deliberated on a number of issues to do with the party’s constitution. “We deliberated a number of issues to do with the constitution of the party which are very important issues here, the constitution, and to prepare for NEC tomorrow, it was a good meeting,” he said.
