The governing All Progressives Congress has debunked speculations that its National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, was rushed abroad for medical treatment.
The news of Adamu’s illness was refuted in two separate interviews with the APC National Vice Chairman for the South East, Dr Ijeoma Arodiogbu, and the party’s Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim.
Some online blogs had reported that the party’s national chairman had yet to return to the country after he was flown abroad over an undisclosed illness.
The news also indicated that the APC National Deputy Chairman for the North, Senator Abubakar Kyari, was temporarily appointed to replace Adamu.
The development is coming barely three weeks after the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, left the country for Paris, France, after the general elections.
But Arodiogbu, a member of the NWC, disclosed that the report of Adamu’s illness was a figment of the imagination of those peddling the rumour.
The national vice chairman confided in our correspondent that Adamu only went on a business trip to China, from where he was expected to attend Umrah in Saudi Arabia.
He said, “He wasn’t sick. He travelled out for business. The national chairman went to China. Of course, I was with him when he met with the Chinese ambassador before he travelled. He went to China from where he left for Saudi Arabia for Hajj.
“As we speak, he is in London and may not return until next week. He is well and was not rushed abroad for treatment. It is also not true that the APC national chairman resigned.”
Continuing, Arodiogbu offered an explanation for the emergence of Kyari as acting national chairman of the party, saying it was in tandem with the party’s constitution.
According to him, once the incumbent chairman is indisposed or out of the country, power is automatically passed to the chairman in charge of his geographical zone.
The APC director of publicity also shared the NWC member’s position, saying there was no iota of truth in the report that Adamu was sick.
Although Ibrahim stated that he wasn’t informed of his itinerary, he gathered that he went to China, probably for some business arrangement.
The APC image maker also noted that the idea of making Kyari the acting national chair was not something that was done out of the blue.
According to him, it was a decision that was backed up by the party’s Constitution.
Meanwhile, a source at the APC national secretariat in Abuja told our reporter that Adamu might have gone on a mining prospect with some Chinese businessmen.
The source said, “You know he was into mining and until he travelled, we have seen some Chinese paying him some visits some weeks before to discuss this mining thing.
“In fact, the journey ought to have been before now, probably a month earlier. But because that was in the heat of the presidential rallies and campaign, he couldn’t go.”
