By Olusegun Olanrewaju
Aspirants interested in the national chairmanship position of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will pay N20 million for nomination forms, the party announced yesterday.

The party also disclosed that all aspirants for the office of deputy national chairmanship will pay N10 million, while other positions in the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party will attract N5 million each.

The sale of nomination forms, which was billed to have started on Monday, will close on Friday, ahead of the party’s March 26 national convention.

This came just as the allegedly orchestrated ‘coup’ to decapitate the Mai Mala Buni leadership of the APC collapsed like a pack of cards yesterday, just as the party announced a new fee regime for contestants to national offices.

Triumphantly, the National Secretary of the party’s Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), James Akpanudoedehe, returned to the APC national secretariat, Abuja, accompanied by allies and armed security personnel.

Akpanudoedehe’s return to the secretariat comes days after Niger State governor, Abubakar Bello, stormed the secretariat with some APC governors, and announced that he was the acting national chairman of the CECPC.

That was interpreted to be a move ousting the Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State’s chairmanship of the committee.

An elated Akpanudoedehe then issued a statement insisting the party remains united and strong, and that Governor Buni remains in charge with the committee working to ensure the party’s national convention is held on March 26.

That marked a dramatic departure from penultimate Monday’s reports that Buni had been sacked, and that Akpanudoedehe was no longer the CECPC secretary.

However, a statement issued last weekend in Abuja by the APC director of publicity, Salisu Dambatta, stressed that Akpanudoedehe never sent a resignation letter to the party and that Buni was not sacked.

Clarifying the controversy in the office of the party’s CECPC secretary, Dambatta said, “All those are utterly false.”

Akpanudoedehe, in his statement yesterday “to clarify the events of last week and reassure the membership and stakeholders of the party, as well as the Nigerian people in general”, noted that “the governing party is crisis-free, strong and remains united in giving the country the transformative leadership and good governance which she promised them”.

According to him, the CECPC was appointed, “and has always done her best, to steer the affairs of the APC in line with the mandate invested in her at the inauguration by the National Executive Council (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress”.

The national secretary added, “On the 28th day of February 2022, the CECPC chairman took a long-delayed trip abroad on health grounds, leaving behind written authorisation for other members of the CECPC to continue work in his absence, particularly the day to day management of the APC.

“In his absence, sundry activities earlier scheduled for action appeared to develop fresh urgency to satisfy the Timetable for the 2023 General Elections released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), thus galvanizing some within the CECPC to act in their best understanding of both the situation and the leadership dynamics in the committee/party.

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“All such actions were identified at all times as happening in an acting or proxy capacity, and under the auspices of the substantive chairman, His Excellency, Governor Mai Mala Buni, contrary to widespread speculations that the chairman, secretary, or some other officials of the CECPC, have been removed from office or otherwise replaced.

“The CECPC is intact and functional as originally constituted. That delivering a seamlessly successful National Convention for the APC on March 26, 2022, is a top priority for the CECPC, and we shall continue to execute such assignments as are legal pending the return of the chairman, who is on his way back to the country, and shall resume office on arrival with the full support of all members and other stakeholders.”

The statement, signed by the secretary, expressed appreciation to INEC “for her firm guidance in the entire circumstances”.

Meanwhile, the party says it has engaged a team of senior lawyers to address a purported court order halting the planned APC National Convention.

“We hereby call on the judiciary to give the matter the needed and expedient attention in our bid to vacate the purported court order and allow for the conduct of a transparent and rancour-free National Convention deserving of our great party, APC”, it said.

The PAC added, “The Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) hereby restates absolute loyalty to the APC, thanks to the national organs and leadership of our party led by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, and reassures our members and citizens that the party is stronger than ever before, and poised to extend her winning streak since 2015 into 2023 and beyond.