The meetings, the first since Bola Tinubu emerged president, are scheduled to hold on July 18 and 19. The caucus and NEC are the two highest decision making bodies of the APC besides the party’s national convention.
While Adamu, his media handlers and the APC declined to respond to enquiries by this paper, it was learnt that Adamu was at a meeting late Sunday night in the villa.
Adamu’s sack was at the behest of Tinubu who is not the embattled former chairman’s choice for the party’s presidential ticket.
Adamu worked against Bola Tinubu’s emergence as presidential candidate of APC. He supported and worked towards installing former Senate President Ahmed Lawan as the party’s presidential candidate but failed.
The embattled chairman has since struggled to regain Tinubu’s trust but has been shut out from key decisions by the administration. He was snubbed in the process of choosing the principal officers in the National Assembly.
The principal officers of the majority party are usually chosen by the party leadership in conjunction with the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives and the blessing of the president.
Adamu had described the announcements of principal officers by Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abass, as mere rumour, even though the senate president and speaker got Tinubu’s blessing before making the announcement.
Although it is not clear whether or not the intra-party squabble was responsible, Adamu was conspicuously absent in a group picture of the class of 1999 governors who met with Tinubu last week.
Adamu and Tinubu had served as governors of Nasarawa and Lagos States respectively from 1999 to 2007.
It was however learnt that a National Working Committee (NWC) meeting held earlier in a secret location in Abuja on Sunday after which the news of his resignation emerged. It was gathered that the majority of the NWC are in agreement for Adamu to step aside.
While one member of the NWC admitted that Adamu has resigned another noted that the embattled national chairman has not tendered any formal letter to that effect to the party leadership as required. He is expected to hand in his letter to the deputy national chairman (North).
Another party source however hinted that Adamu may have notified the Imo State governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma of his resignation. Uzodimma is the chairman of APC governor’s forum, popularly called Progressives Governors Forum.
It was also learnt that the National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore, will also be forced to step aside to balance the score.
It will be recalled that some NWC members led by had accused Adamu and Omisore of running the party in an opaque way.
APC vice-chairman in the North-West, Salihu Lukman, had in an open letter accused Adamu of highhandedness.
In the letter dated April 19 and addressed to Adamu, Lukman alleged that the APC national chairman is running the affairs of the party in disregard to the party’s constitution.
He claimed that despite numerous letters he wrote to Adamu to convene a meeting of the national working committee (NWC), the APC chairman declined and instead chose to run the party arbitrarily.
“Perhaps, by extension, I can also conclude that given your disposition to run affairs of the party only based on your discretionary decisions without reference to provisions of the APC constitution, your commitment to the party and its electoral viability is weak,” the letter reads.
In June Lukman further accused Adamu and Omisore of squandering N30 billion realised during the sales of forms for the 2023 elections.
Recall that in the buildup to the APC presidential primaries, former President Muhammadu Buhari had delegated the powers of the NEC to the Adam-led NWC.