Crack in Buhari’s APC camp

There appears to be a crack in the camp of President Muhammadu Buhari as the Presidential Support Committee (PSC) of the ruling and the All Progressive Congress (APC) has suspended its National Coordinator and Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, for “inactivity and poor leadership”.

The committee is an umbrella body of President Buhari support groups.

It had a mandate to galvanise support for President Buhari’s re-election in 2019.

PSC founder and National Facilitator, Hon. Gideon Sammani, and the Organisation’s Director of Media, Dr. Kailani Muhammad, told reporters on Saturday that the suspension was carried out to ensure the survival and the revitalization of the organisation.

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The event where Akpabio was suspended was the “National General Meeting and Merit Award” of the PSC and the former Akwa Ibom State governor was slated to deliver a speech.

However, the 41-member national executive committee said Akpabio was undermining the progress of the organisation, which they said was the platform through which he got his ministerial appointment.

“While PSC has supported the APC and the re-election of President Muhammad Buhari in the 2019 election, regrettably it is gradually drifting due to failed leadership of the National Coordinator.”

“We are worried that in an attempt to bring back PSC to glory, whose members have committed themselves to the successful reelection of the President in 2019, the National Coordinator, whose appointment as Minister was through the platform, has abandoned the organisation and its members.

“But we cannot hold back and watch PSC that was positively established to sink as a result of inactivity. Those who worked for APC and the President must be carried along,” Sammani said.

He said APC members are very experienced people, who worked tirelessly to refocus the organization and to enable it achieve its objectives, but that the National Coordinator became a cog in the wheel of its progress.

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He said at the close of 2020, the idea of a National Conference was mooted but to the chagrin of every member, Akpabio skillfully turned down the idea under the pretext of shifting the time for the conference to January, 2021, which is yet to see the light of the day.

He said: “Senator Akpabio as National Coordinator was appointed as Minister for Niger Delta through the PSC platform but the Organisation is worst hit by his inactions.”

He said that even to offer advice, defend government policy and constructively criticise it where necessary has remained a huge challenge to Akpabio.

Jackson Udom, Chief Press Secretary to Akpabio, was not available for comment at the time of filing this report.