The meeting President Muhammadu Buhari held with governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday ended in deadlock.
None of the governors addressed State House correspondents when they left the council chamber of the presidential villa at the end of the meeting.
The meeting, which started at about 2:15 pm, with opening prayers from Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong and his Kebbi State counterpart, Atiku Bagudu.
Before Buhari made his way into the venue of the meeting, most the governors encircled Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, the chairman of APC Governors’ Forum, allegedly expressing reservation with the move to stop Oyegun from leading the party into the next general election.
“This is a coup and we will not allow it to stand,” one of the governors reportedly said in anger.
Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Simon Lalong (Plateau) and Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), told reporters that a unanimous agreement was reached not to talk to the media.
On his way out, one of the governors said, “Some people think they are tall but they can never control us. Never!”
But a source said that the meeting was about the tenure of the party’s national working committee (NWC) led by John Oyegun.
During the last National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party, Buhari said he was against the extension of the NWC period in office by a year.
As a means to prevent a fresh crisis, some stakeholders had reportedly proposed a caretaker committee to be led by Adams Oshiomhole, a former Edo State Governor, who hails from the same state with Oyegun.
On Tuesday, governors elected on the platform of the APC met with Buhari to iron out the issue.
The governors, who were divided over the tenure extension of Oyegun, had heated exchange the over one-hour meeting.
The Daily Times gathered that the President had to reschedule the meeting, asking the governors to pick a date.
Zamfara State Governor Abdullaziz Yari, had chosen April 9 but el-Rufai tackled him on the choice of the date.
Apart from Governors Aminu Masari (Katsina), Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe) and Mohammed Abubakar (Bauchi), all other APC governors attended the meeting. Though the Bauchi governor was represented by his deputy.
The Daily Times recalls that Buhari had asked the party leaders to prepare for national congress, saying the extension of the executives at the state and national level was against the 1999 Constitution of the country and the APC.
Responding to the development, former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu and a national leader of the APC, said Buhari had saved the ruling party from a serious legal turmoil.
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