A FORMER Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has slammed the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, for claiming that President Buhari had approved the removal of his Yobe State counterpart, Mai Bala Buni as acting chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
El-Rufai, who appeared on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, on Wednesday, said the Yobe governor, who is currently in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a medical attention, would not return as chairman of APC caretaker and extraordinary convention planning committee.
He said the President approved his removal before he travelled to the United Kingdom for a routine medical check-up.
The governor claimed that Buni had concluded plans to scuttle the party’s national convention through frivolous court injunction.
El-Rufai said: “Buni is gone, the Secretary is gone. Gov. Bello is in charge and he has the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari and 19 governors. Buni can only return as Governor of Yobe but never as chairman of our Party.
“President Buhari ordered his removal and this has been implemented. Governor Bello has taken over and things are moving according to plan. Party will be restored, convention will take place as scheduled. 19 governors and their deputies are solidly behind this move.
“Buni and his people got a court order to stop the convention but hid it.”
But Fani-Kayode, who appeared on Channels Television, yesterday, described the Kaduna governor’s claim as baseless and unwarranted.
He said: “I was not there when the President ordered the removal of Buni. Neither was he there. I doubt very much if the President would do that, to listen to one side and ignore the other. I doubt if he would do that without following the law.
“Whatever the case, it’s absolutely wrong when things are discussed behind closed doors between party members for someone to come on National TV and started saying the President said we should do this, we should remove so and so this.
“I have never seen a situation where the minister or governor or even party chairman would come on national TV and say Mr. President has endorsed someone and everybody ought to sit down. The President of this country is a democratic, decent person who would never act that way.
“Even if the President told them that, it is not right for El-Rufai to come on national TV and disclose that or begin to paint the President as if he were kind of a dictator. We are in a country of laws which must be regarded. If the President wants to remove Buni, he would do it according to law.”
He decried the public demonisation of Governor Buni in his absence, saying most APC governors were not happy with what El-Rufai had said.
