INEC To Niger Gov Bello: We’re Not Aware Of Leadership Change In APC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it is not aware of leadership change in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Daily Trust reports.

Senior officials of the electoral body told Daily Trust on Thursday that this has been communicated to the party in the commission’s response to a letter written to it by the Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, who is the acting chairman of the party’s caretaker committee.

The officials pleaded not to be named as they were not authorised to speak on the matter.

Governor Sani Bello had on Wednesday written INEC in his capacity as the acting national chairman of the APC’s Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) inviting the commission to their National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting scheduled for next week Thursday via zoom.

Sani Bello had on Monday in Abuja assumed the APC leadership after President Muhammadu Buhari allegedly approved the removal of the Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni, as the chairman of the CECPC and in his stead, okayed his Niger State counterpart as a replacement.

This has led to controversy because Sani Bello had on Monday shortly after presiding over meetings at the APC national secretariat said he was only acting as chairman.

However, on Wednesday, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State said Buni who is on a medical trip in Dubai had been removed at the instance of President Buhari.

He blamed Buni for the widening crisis in the party and said that the Yobe governor had been removed for good and that Sani Bello was fully in charge with the support of at least 19 governors of the ruling party.

But curiously, a letter surfaced yesterday purportedly from Buni officially handing over to Bello to act while he (the Yobe governor) was away. The authenticity of the letter could not be independently verified by this newspaper.

Responding to the claim, Governor Sani Bello said there was nothing like that.

‘INEC not aware of leadership change’

Two of the sources that spoke to Daily Trust said the alleged letter from the APC indicating a change of guard from Buni to Sani Bello was problematic.

“Yes, there was a letter from the APC, which the commission replied because there were legal issues…They did not do the right thing,” one of the officials of the electoral body said.

Another official said that the commission in the reply reminded the APC that it was only the national chairman and national secretary of the party that could write such a letter.

Senator John James Akpanudoedehe was the CECPC Secretary and his fate was yet to be decided in the new arrangement led by Governor Bello.

This, by implication, meant that INEC was yet to be formally notified of the leadership change in APC for the new leadership led by Governor Bello to formally write INEC for official matters.

The Electoral Act 2022 in Article 82 (1) stated: Every registered political party shall give the commission at least 21 days’ notice of any convention, congress, conference or meeting convened for the purpose of “merger” and electing members of its executive committees, other governing bodies or nominating candidates for any of the elective offices specified under this Act.