An internal crisis seems to have crept into the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, over the recent composition of the members of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council.
Recall that the APC had on Friday released a list of a 422-man committee comprising notable party chieftains including President Muhammadu Buhari, state governors, ministers and some former presidential aspirants.
But the list reportedly stirred the hornet’s nest in the party’s National Working Committee, as members accused Mr Tinubu of deliberately sidelining them in the composition of the campaign council.
In a leaked letter addressed to Mr Tinubu, the APC national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, accused the party’s flagbearer of reneging on the agreement regarding the composition of the Council, saying the purported list came to the NWC “with a complete surprise”.
The letter read: “This correspondence has become necessary in view of developments that took place over the last few days around the purported appointments into the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) that was announced precipitately by officials of the Council, without making a recourse to the NWC for approval.
“All along, the NWC had been disposed towards the campaign in a cooperative spirit that is driven by the overall interest of the Party and the singular desire of victory for our candidates, in the persons of your esteemed self and your running mate.
“It is against this background that the NWC received with astonishment and regret, the press release by the PCC on 23rd September, 2022, in which a purported list of appointees was announced, which effectively served as the approved roster of participants in the Party’s Presidential Campaign Council.
“The purported list not only came as a complete surprise to the NWC and the Party’s leadership, but also contravened the principles and purposes of the arrangements that you and I had led towards the adoption of the Organogram of the PCC, and its principal officials.
Meanwhile, the APC Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, in a statement sent to DAILY NIGERIAN, said the purported letter didn’t emanate from the national chairman.
According to him, an UNSIGNED letter that marks itself as a ‘DRAFT’ cannot and should not be attributed to its purported author.
He said: “The National Chairman of our Party and our Presidential Candidate maintain cordial and effective communication channels, and enjoy full liberty of open and frank conversations on matters of interest to the Party and our Presidential Campaign.
“As such, an unsigned “DRAFT” letter of the kind in circulation is patently unnecessary and of no qualitative value to engagement between the Party and the PCC,” Mr Morka added.
