Adamawa APC Crisis: Nuhu Ribadu Drops Suit Challenging Governorship Ticket, Broker Peace

Peace seems to have been restored in the Adamawa State chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC), as the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), MalLam Nuhu Ribadu has dropped the case challenging the governorship ticket of the party in the state.

Naija News reports that Ribadu who lost in the May 26, 2022, governorship primary election of the party that produced Aishatu Ahmed Binani had contested her emergence as the Adamawa APC governorship candidacy in court.

The Federal High Court in its ruling nullified Binani candidacy, passing judgment that the party has no governorship candidate for the 2023 election in Adamawa State.

But the Court of Appeal, however, restored Binani last month, the judgement that prompted Ribadu’s intention of going to the Supreme Court.

However, Naija News gathered that the former EFCC boss in a letter has declared he would let the matter go to rest and respect the court of appeal’s judgement on Binani candidacy.

Ribadu said in the letter that was obtained by the Daily Post that he had decided to forego his interest for the larger good of the party.

The former EFCC chair who described the decision as a difficult one in the interest of the party urged all his supporters to support Binani’s gubernatorial ambition.

Ribadu’s decision to broker peace in the party follows the intervention of Nigeria’s First Lady, Aisha Buhari in the crisis of the party in the state last week.

Naija News reported last week Wednesday that Mrs Buhari waded into the Adamawa APC crisis saying common sense would have to prevail.

In two different posts on her Instagram page to address the matter, the First Lady said “In the name of Allah, I wish to thank Adamawa State APC Leaders for the courtesy visit they paid on me, on November 18, 2022.

“As an indigene of the State, a mother a Grand Mother and the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I would like to reaffirm my support for the genuine concern of our party leaders, as well as COMMIT TO STEPPING INTO THE PROBLEM so that reason and common sense will prevail in Adamawa politics.”

In her second post, she noted that “I would again like to repeat my appeal to respected leaders in the North to learn from the exemplary practice of their South-West counterparts in enthroning women as deputy governors in states as a gradual approach to obtaining gender inclusion in our polity.

“This is a most realistic step in our efforts at attaining gender justice instead of supporting the pursuit of the misplaced ambition of an individual do-or-die politician.”

However, Naija News learnt that Ribadu, who decided to give peace a chance explained that he had approached the court in the first place because he found no internal redress for his complaints but that after the Appeal Court reinstated the candidate declared winner of the primary, “we disagree with the judgment but I have no intention of dragging this any further.”

“I have been in consultation with my family, political associates and party leaders at different levels on the next step. In addition, I have reflected deeply on my mission in politics, especially my aspiration for the Adamawa governorship.

“My motivation in aspiring to govern the state is for an opportunity to serve my dear state as my contribution to a more purposeful future for the state,” Ribadu submitted in the letter.