The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has put some of his trusted allies in a sub-committee to enforce his consensus plan at the national convention of the All Progressives Congress, The PUNCH can confirm.
The 35-member sub-committee, known as Technical Committee on Monitoring and Supervision, is headed by Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma. Others on the committee include- Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State; the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN); and the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who also represents Buhari’s home state of Katsina in the federal cabinet.
Others in the committee include Buhari’s trusted ally and Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu; the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiyya Farouq; and Buhari’s social media aide, Lauretta Onochie, who was nominated as a national commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission sparked a nationwide outrage last year.
An impeccable source in the APC told The PUNCH that the members of the monitoring committee would be the “President’s eyes and ears at the national convention.”
“The duty of Malami and others will be to ensure that the President’s orders are obeyed strictly. It will be like a class captain compiling names of noisemakers. They will monitor those who defy the President’s orders and report accordingly.
“Some of the members of the committee are the President’s closest allies. They were the ones that travelled to London two weeks ago to save Buni’s job. They were with him long before he became President,” said an APC chieftain who wished to remain anonymous.
The President’s insistence on Nasarawa State Senator and former Governor, Abdullahi Adamu; had caused friction among some chieftains of the party including some chairmanship aspirants.
Buhari has insisted that Adamu be the sole aspirant for the chairman while other aspirants were ordered to step down and the N20m they spent on procuring forms would be returned to them.
The governors are expected to draft a “unity list” for all party positions which will be affirmed at the convention.
However, as of Friday afternoon, none of the aspirants had agreed to step down.
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