Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, Kaduna State has said that Mai Mala Buni, governor of Yobe State, employed lawyers who colluded colluded with a petitioner to destroy the national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Witness on Tuesday, published a detailed report revealing how Buni used to his lawyers to procure an interim order suspending the APC convention with a view to continuing as the party’s caretaker committee chairman.
The Kaduna governor who spoke on Channels TV on Wednesday, said a court order stopping the convention was a “hidden nuclear weapon” that would have hampered the party’s chances in the 2023 general election.
According to him, “This court order was obtained in November. A member of the party went to court to say that there must be no convention until his case against the party is disposed of, which can take months or years.”
“The lawyer of the party and the lawyers of Mai Mala Buni went to court and agreed with the petitioner and got this order. Nobody knew about this order.
“It was never brought to the caretaker committee. It was sort of hidden as a hidden nuclear weapon to destroy the convention, which further made us believe that there are fifth columnists in the party that want to bring this party down, because if we don’t have an elected executive committee of the party and we go ahead to have primaries, we are likely to have our candidates lose all their seats as we saw in Zamfara state.
“When we reported to the president and said no action (referring to the convention planning) had been taken, he said governor Abubakar Sani Bello must take over on Monday and we should use whatever legal means necessary to make sure that this convention is delivered.
“It was the president’s order to us as governors. He (referring to Niger governor) has the president’s full backing and the backing of at least 19 of the APC governors.
“There are some governors who are not fully on board. They are the ones planting fake stories that this one has resigned and that one has not resigned. You get all kinds of stories on social media.”
Recall that on Monday, Abubakar Sani Bello, governor of Niger, took over as the APC caretaker committee chairman — replacing Buni who was appointed to the position in June 2020.
Over the past weeks, there have been internal wranglings in the party over the arrangements for its national convention.
Buni and John Akpanudoedehe, national secretary of the APC caretaker committee, were said to have used a third party to obtain a court order temporarily restraining the ruling party from holding its convention until a substantive suit has been heard and determined.