LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – The All Progressives Congress on Thursday distanced its Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, from the open letter he purportedly penned to the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, accusing him (Tinubu) of running a one-man show in composing his campaign council.
The ruling party maintained that the letter did not emanate from its chairman and that the letter in circulation was not signed by Adamu.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, debunked the letter in a statement made available to journalists on Thursday.
The PUNCH reports that barely one week after releasing his presidential campaign council list, Tinubu come under heavy fire from the leadership and national working committee of the party.
In a strongly worded letter written and signed by Adamu to Tinubu who is still having a vacation in London, the party accused him of arrogantly ignoring their contribution to the composition of his campaign council.
Tinubu had on Friday unveiled a 422-man committee comprising political heavyweights and other notable members to pilot the various sub-committees of the campaign council.
The list of members released by Secretary of the Presidential Campaign Council, James Faleke, in Abuja, followed a series of postponements and conjectures about those who would be saddled with the task of leading the ruling party’s bid to retain power at the federal level.
The campaign council chaired by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has Tinubu and the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, as co-deputy chairmen.
However, Morka on Thursday, said the letter was unsigned and should not be attributed to the ruling party chairman.
“Our attention has been drawn to a “DRAFT” letter in circulation purportedly written by His Excellency, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the National Chairman of our great Party, addressed to His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Presidential Candidate of our great Party, expressing dissatisfaction over the recently released list of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).
“To be clear, the “DRAFT” letter did not emanate from the Party. An UNSIGNED letter that marks itself as a ‘DRAFT’ cannot and should not be attributed to its purported author.
“The National Chairman of our Party and our Presidential Candidate maintain cordial and effective communication channels, and enjoy full liberty of open and frank conversations on matters of interest to the Party and our Presidential Campaign. As such, an unsigned “DRAFT” letter of the kind in circulation is patently unnecessary and of no qualitative value to engagement between the Party and the PCC.
“We will not be distracted by the wishes and actions of detractors that wait gleefully but in vain for some kind of crisis to erupt between the Party and the PCC.
“We stand united, as a Party, in our resolve and commitment to execute a focused and issue-driven campaign to persuade Nigerians to renew our mandate in next year’s general election,” the statement read.