The National Chairman of Nigeria’s Ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu resigned last night ahead of the return of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from the African Union (AU) meeting in Kenya.
Senator Adamu, a former governor of Nasarawa State who became the national chairman at the party’s national convention in March 2022 sent his resignation letter to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, around 4pm 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 stated.
Another source corroborated this, adding that, “The national chairman resigned following a gang up by people around the president to embarrass him during the meetings of the party slated for tomorrow and Wednesday.”
The source, however, denied a report that it was President Tinubu that asked Adamu to resign ahead of the National Caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings of the party slated for tomorrow 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).
A founding member of the party said Adamu resigned when he got wind that two influential personalities around the president had mobilised against him ahead of the meetings.
“He resigned because they have started to collate signatures to impeach him during the forthcoming meetings. He resigned to save himself from humiliation,” the elder stateman explained.
When contacted, Adamu said he will not speak on the matter until President Tinubu returns from the AU’s meeting.
“I won’t talk about the issue because the president is away,” Adamu who was the preferred candidate of former President Muhammadu Buhari for the chairmanship seat, said.
Recall that Adamu had, shortly before the presidential primaries of the APC, declared former Senate President Ahmad Lawan as the consensus candidate of the party.
The declaration by Adamu created upheaval within the party as governors of the party from the North kicked against him. They went to the villa and declared that the presidency be zoned to the South.
The position of the governors forced the party to open the race for its presidential ticket. Tinubu won the election. Recently, Adamu kicked against the list of the principal officers of the party announced by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas.
There are other indications that Adamu and the National Secretary of the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore may be considered for ministerial appointments, for which they are required to resign their current positions.