APC Governors Meet Buhari On Appointment As Party Vice-Chair Slaps Guber Candidate In Enugu Over Ministerial Slot

Governors of the All Progressives Congress are meeting with the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja on Tuesday, The PUNCH has learnt.

The meeting, it was gathered, would be the first to be attended by the governors jointly since the conduct of the March 28 presidential election which Buhari won.

One of the governors, who spoke on the condition of anonymity with PUNCH Newspaper in Abuja on Sunday, said that the meeting would also be attended by all the APC governors-elect.

He said, “The APC governors, serving and incoming, are to meet GMB (Buhari) on Tuesday morning in Abuja to pay a courtesy call on him, formally congratulate him on his electoral victory and make input into the policy direction of the administration ahead of the May 29 inauguration of the new government.

“Ahead of the Tuesday meeting, the governors would hold a meeting on Monday evening in Abuja where we would firm up our presentation to the President-elect.”

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who said he was not aware of the meeting, however, stated that it was possible.

He said he had been busy with the work of the transition committee set up by Buhari. Mohammed said, “Yes, the meeting is possible but I have been busy with the committee’s work.”

It was learnt that the governors might demand that they be allowed to nominate those to be appointed ministers in their states.

Apart from this, the governors are also expected to make their position known on which zone to be supported for the office of the Senate President.

It was gathered that the governors would demand that they be allowed to nominate who should become the Senate President.

Despite the fact that two of the governors contested the presidential primaries against Buhari, majority of the governors supported his candidacy.

After Buhari’s emergence as the party’s standard bearer, the governors wanted one of them as his running mate, but when the lot fell on Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), they bowed to party supremacy and supported the GMB/PYO ticket.

It was gathered that the governors felt that they should be allowed to present the next Senate President since they had not collectively got anything since the formation of the APC.

Buhari emerged from the old All Nigeria Peoples Party and the defunct Congress for Progressives Change block while Osinbajo emerged from the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria block.

The governors believed that they played a prominent role in the merger that led to the formation of the APC.

Meanwhile, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Enugu State in the April 11 governorship election, Okey Ezea, on Sunday insisted that he was attacked by the party’s national vice chairman in the South East, Emma Eneukwu, over ministerial slot in the incoming Muhammadu Buhari administration.

It was widely reported that Mr. Eneukwu slapped Ezea in the presence of Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, a senator, Chris Ngige; and other leaders of the party at a meeting in Abuja but that he used his hand to block his attacker.

Mr. Ezea had in a text message to some journalists on Friday alleged that he was attacked by the national vice chairman.

The text reads: “Emma Eneukwu slapped me today because I told South East leaders that Nsukka has not been minister since 1999. He did this before Rochas, Ngige, Izenaso, J.O.J, General Eze, Ucha etc. I just said the truth and requested justice and equity in the affairs of our party and Enugu State. Emma wants to be minister by violence. Emma is from Udi LGA which has minister since 2007, including the incumbent, Chinedu Nebo. We must fight injustice and oppression. APC is change.”