From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu has denied receiving any correspondence from the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, demanding immediate withdrawal of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) list.
A letter from the National Working Committee (NWC) signed by the national chairman purportedly released yesterday, had specifically warned its presidential candidate to checkmate further escalation of the crisis between the party’s leadership and PCC by withdrawing the campaign list.
The letter read: “May I, therefore, point out to Your Excellency, that winning elections is a cooperative as well as a collaborative effort, done in transparency and disinterested manner by all parties concerned, by respecting established boundaries and acknowledging the contributions of everyone.
“The NWC believes that any sign of disarray in the party’s ranks will undermine the spirit and ethos of the campaign and give undue alarm to faithful members and followers of the party across the country.
“At the same, such a development would undoubtedly come as “Manna from Heaven” for the opposition parties, whose only desire when all else fails, is to see the introduction of rancour, division and disinclination in the leadership of our great party.
“I am sure Your Excellency will agree with me that this is an eventuality that we must do all in our power to prevent from happening. You will also agree that we owe it a duty as leaders to provide guidance by example to the rest of the Party including the PCC, to abide by agreements and adhere strictly to the work ethos that has been adopted by all of us. It is only by doing so that we will establish the premise for victory and gain the trust and confidence of our dear countrymen and women.
“Without further admonishment or complaints, I wish hereby to call upon Your Excellency to restrain the PCC from undertaking solo projects of this nature, and agree to work with all stakeholders towards taking our Party to victory,” the letter read partly.
Responding to the purported letter, in a short, sharp message, a member of the Tinubu Media team, simply noted: “The National Chairman didn’t send any letter to Asiwaju. So, how do we react to a leaked letter that was never sent?”
However, in a surprise twist, the leadership of the ruling party has disassociated itself from the trending unsigned ‘draft’ letter and claimed it did not emanate from the party’s leadership.
Titled “APC Presidential Campaign Council – Abdullahi Adamu did not write Tinubu, the statement signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, insisted that the party’s boss did not author such a letter.
“Our attention has been drawn to a “Draft” letter in circulation purportedly written by His Excellency, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the National Chairman of our great party, addressed to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of our great party, expressing dissatisfaction over the recently released list of the PCC.
“To be clear, the “Draft” letter did not emanate from the party. An Unsigned letter that marks itself as a ‘Draft’ cannot and should not be attributed to its purported author.
“The National Chairman of our party and our presidential candidate maintain cordial and effective communication channels and enjoy full liberty of open and frank conversations on matters of interest to the party and our presidential campaign.
“As such, an unsigned “Draft” letter of the kind in circulation is patently unnecessary and of no qualitative value to engagement between the party and the PCC.
“We will not be distracted by the wishes and actions of detractors that wait gleefully but in vain for some kind of crisis to erupt between the Party and the PCC.
“We stand united, as a party, in our resolve and commitment to execute a focused and issue-driven campaign to persuade Nigerians to renew our mandate in next year’s general election,” the statement signed by Morka read.