Senator Abdullahi Adamu, former National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has said he would not make comment on his sudden resignation because President Bola Tinubu was away.
Adamu disclosed this to Daily Trust in a telephone conversation on Monday.
He said, “I won’t talk about the issue because the president is away,” Adamu told this paper over the phone.
Tinubu left the country on Saturday for African Union (AU) meeting in Nairobi, Kenya and according to his itinerary released by Dele Alake, his spokesman, the president is due to return to the country at the end of the meeting.
The president is being expected any moment from now.
A founding member of the party said Adamu resigned when he got wind that two influential personalities around the president had mobilised against him ahead of the National Caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings of the party slated for Tuesday and Wednesday.
The party had fixed July 10 and 11 for its National Caucus and NEC meetings to iron out critical issues affecting it and the crisis within the National Working Committee (NWC).
However, the meetings were later postponed and rescheduled.
“He resigned because they have started to collate signatures to impeach him during the forthcoming meetings. He resigned to save himself from humiliation,” the top politician said.
A source said Adamu sent his resignation letter to the Chief of Staff of the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, around 4pm on Sunday.
“He has resigned. The resignation letter signed by him has been sent to the villa. The letter was addressed to President Tinubu. But since the president is away in Kenya for the AU meeting, the letter was sent to his chief of staff,” the source said.
Adamu spent barely 15 months in office. Towards the end of his tenure, he fell out with some key members of the party over the principal officers of the National Assembly, whom he rejected, but he reportedly let go off the issue following the intervention of Tinubu.
After an Aso Rock meeting, Adamu described the row over the National Assembly principal officers as “family affair.”