TheCable

Mai Mala Buni, chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) caretaker committee, says Abubakar Sani Bello, Niger state governor, did a good job managing the party in his absence. 

Bello was in charge of the party’s affairs in acting capacity when Buni travelled abroad for medical treatment.

Buni returned to the country on Thursday and took control of the party.

The party has been embroiled in a crisis with allegations that Buni’s caretaker committee was working to sabotage the APC national convention.

When Bello was in charge, he reversed some of the decisions made by Buni, and even denied receiving the latter’s leave of absence letter.

Speaking after a meeting with members of the caretaker committee on Thursday, Buni said Bello did “very well in managing the affairs of the party”.

He added that the party is at the “finishing line” in preparation for the convention on March 26.

“You know that this is not a formal meeting of the committee. These members of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) just came to welcome me back to the country and wish me well after returning from a medical trip outside the country,” he said.

“You know that since I travelled, the party has not stopped. His excellency (Abubakar Sani Bello) has done very well in managing the affairs of the party. We are here to discuss the issues going forward. We are now at the finishing line in the preparations for our National Convention which is at hand on March 26.

“We are putting heads together to achieve this task ahead. I want to emphasise that the March 26 National Convention is sacrosanct.”

On his part, Bello said significant progress has been made ahead of the convention.

“For the past one week, I have been acting as the chairman of the CECPC and what I can tell you is that we made lots of progress towards our national convention like we saw in the inauguration of the state chairmen, adoption of some of the zoning formula, and some of the decisions of the CECPC taken before he (governor Buni) left the country,” he said.

“I can tell you for free that in the last one week, we have ensured that we are good to go for the national convention.”