Banire speaks on Adamu, Omisore resignation, says forced, not voluntary

By KEMIKASUMU, Lagos

The resignation of National Chairman and National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu and Senator Iyiola Omisore, respectively, on Sunday is beginning to turn messy with some unbelievable developments around it unfolding.

This was as Mr. Muiz Banire (SAN) gave another dimension to it, saying their resignation may have been forced rather than voluntary.

Banire, a former legal counsel to the APC, said this on Monday.

It will be recalled that following the top leaders’ resignation, Senator Abubakar Kyari emerged acting APC National Chairman to succeed Adamu, while Barrister Festus Fuanter succeeded Omisore as acting National Secretary.

Reacting, Banire, who appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today Monday night, noted that the ruckus raised by another APC chieftain, Salihu Lukman, might have contributed to the resignation of the former Chairman.

He said, “I have been reading Mr Lukman Salihu for some time; he has been raising a lot of issues, particularly bordering on maladministration of the party, misappropriation funds and so on.

“Well, that could be part of it because I know as a matter of fact, in NWC sometimes those are usually issues that usually confront or challenge the body.

“So, it’s not unlikely that it is as a result of such issues that have been in the public space for some time now; maybe it has reached its peak now and couldn’t be absorbed again. They probably reacted.

“I’m not too sure that the resignation could have been voluntarily, in my view, I might be wrong; I probably believe that maybe the pressure of other colleagues of theirs forced them eventually to tender their resignation,” Banire said.

After a National Working Committee (NWC) meeting on Monday in Abuja, Kyari succeeded Senator Abdullahi Adamu as the party’s chairman.

Adamu and Senator Iyiola Omisore officially resigned as the party’s National Chairman and National Secretary, respectively, according to a statement made by Kyari to the media following the NWC meeting.

Kyari added that Festus Fuanter, the APC’s deputy national secretary, will operate as the party’s national secretary in accordance with the party’s charter.