Our chairman, Adamu on business trip, not rushed abroad for treatment – APC

The governing All Progressives Congress has debunked
speculations that its National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, was rushed
abroad for medical treatment.

The news of Adamu’s illness was refuted in two separate
interviews with the APC National Vice Chairman for the South East, Dr Ijeoma
Arodiogbu, and the party’s Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim.

Some online blogs had reported that the party’s national
chairman had yet to return to the country after he was flown abroad over an
undisclosed illness.

The news also indicated that the APC National Deputy
Chairman for the North, Senator Abubakar Kyari, was temporarily appointed to
replace Adamu.

But Arodiogbu, a member of the NWC, disclosed that the
report of Adamu’s illness was a figment of the imagination of those peddling
the rumour.

The national vice chairman confided in our correspondent
that Adamu only went on a business trip to China, from where he was expected to
attend Umrah in Saudi Arabia.

He said, “He wasn’t sick. He travelled out for business. The
national chairman went to China. Of course, I was with him when he met with the
Chinese ambassador before he travelled. He went to China from where he left for
Saudi Arabia for Hajj.

“As we speak, he is in London and may not return until next
week. He is well and was not rushed abroad for treatment. It is also not true
that the APC national chairman resigned.”

Continuing, Arodiogbu offered an explanation for the
emergence of Kyari as acting national chairman of the party, saying it was in
tandem with the party’s constitution.

According to him, once the incumbent chairman is indisposed
or out of the country, power is automatically passed to the chairman in charge
of his geographical zone.

The APC director of publicity also shared the NWC member’s
position, saying there was no iota of truth in the report that Adamu was sick.

Although Ibrahim stated that he wasn’t informed of his
itinerary, he gathered that he went to China, probably for some business
arrangement.

The APC image maker also noted that the idea of making Kyari
the acting national chair was not something that was done out of the blue.

According to him, it was a decision that was backed up by
the party’s Constitution.

Meanwhile, a source at the APC national secretariat in Abuja
told our reporter that Adamu might have gone on a mining prospect with some
Chinese businessmen.

The source said, “You know he was into mining and until he
travelled, we have seen some Chinese paying him some visits some weeks before
to discuss this mining thing.

“In fact, the journey ought to have been before now,
probably a month earlier. But because that was in the heat of the presidential
rallies and campaign, he couldn’t go.”