Muslim-Muslim Ticket, Refund Of Nomination Fees, Other ‘Crimes’ Threatening Adamu Abdullahi’s APC Chairmanship

Moves to unseat the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adamu Abdullahi, barely six months after assuming office have heightened.

Indications emerged over the weekend that some stakeholders are plotting to unseat Senator Abdullahi Adamu to appease the APC Christian bloc angry with the decision of the ruling party to field a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

Muslim-Muslim Ticket

Speaking to Vanguard, an APC leader said a Christian National Chairman can placate those aggrieved with the Muslim-Muslim ticket.

“Yes, there are those who feel that the controversy generated by our Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket can be lessened by having a Christian chairman and also proposing a Christian Chief of Staff to the President. Some have proposed a federal lawmaker, James Faleke, for that position, that is, Chief of Staff,” the party leader said.

“There are issues regarding the continued stay of Adamu as party chair. The first is that we need to placate the Christian community.

“Second, a lot of us expected from Adamu in an election season, but he hasn’t done much. We need the bureaucracy of the party to be alive this period, but their salaries are not even forthcoming, and you expect them to work efficiently? That is one thing that might count against the chairman.

“Also, he was Chairman of the APC National Reconciliation Committee before he became the national chairman of the party. We expected that by now, he would have been able to resolve the major differences, but that has not happened.

“The leader of our party, President Muhammadu Buhari, also urged us to refund the money paid by aspirants at the convention which produced Adamu as national chairman. Aspirants paid millions, yet we haven’t refunded them. These are some of the issues.”

Nomination Fees And Delayed Salary

Another source accused the National Chairman of failing to refund aspirants’ nomination fees as directed by the president.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the party to refund the nomination fees to all aspirants at the March 26 National Convention who stepped down for the party’s consensus arrangement.

Adamu-led NWC is also accused of failing to pay staff salaries as scheduled for the last two months.

“The June salary was paid in the middle of July while the staff only received their July pay last Friday as against payment on the 25th of every month,” the source said.

“It would be recalled that in a move to perfect a consensus arrangement ahead of the party’s March 27 National Convention, President Buhari, at a meeting on March 23 with eight national chairmanship aspirants at the Villa, persuaded them to step down for a consensus candidate with a promise of a refund of their nomination fee.”