The aggrieved APC governors, according to Timi Frank, a former deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress, are frantically trying to persuade President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret.) to change his mind about the old N500 and N1,000 notes before they agree to settle the dispute out of court.
A supporter of former vice president Atiku Abubakar named Frank claimed that there was such intense pressure to resolve the naira redesign policy cases outside of the Supreme Court that he feared the president and Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami might give in.
He made the claim in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday.
His concern is coming in the wake of Sunday crucial meeting between the National Chairman of the party, Dr Abdullahi Adamu and governors at the secretariat in Abuja.
Twelve governors and two deputies attended the meeting, which got under way at around 2:37 p.m.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the party’s presidential nominee, eventually joined the meeting at around 4.45 p.m.
The Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, were urged by the ruling party and the Progressive Governors Forum to respect the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the naira redesign policy.
In a similar vein, Adamu met behind closed doors once more on Monday with Malami and the three disgruntled governors who had sued the FG for a restraining order to prevent the full implementation of the CBN’s naira redesign policy.
Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, and Bello Matawalle were the governors (Zamfara).
Although the meeting started at about 1.35 pm and took a little over an hour, none of the participants agreed to speak to the press.
There appear to be discussions about a potential out-of-court settlement as a result of recent changes at the party’s national headquarters.
In response to the development, Frank asserted that the AGF was considering the APC’s request for an out-of-court settlement before the Saturday election, according to intelligence.
The politician also urged Malami to stand up for the people by refusing to give in to the intense pressure from the governors, while pleading with Buhari to remember his promise to leave Nigerians the legacy of free, fair, and credible elections.
He said, “Buhari must keep to his words by not bowing to the unholy pressure of the APC’s governors to settle out of court and to have N1,000 and N500 notes reintroduced.
“APC governors don’t have the interest of Nigerians at heart. We have seen how they have serially blackmailed the president to do their bidding in recent past.
Now they’re attempting to use blackmail to get the AGF to drop his lawsuit opposing their own request for an out-of-court settlement during the Wednesday hearing of the Supreme Court.
“Nigerians need to be aware that we only have three days left. Let’s put up with the discomfort for the next three days. Otherwise, the APC and its governors would buy a significant number of votes, tainting the elections, and the dysfunctional system would remain in place.
Festus Keyamo, the chief spokesperson for the APC presidential campaign council, responded to the likelihood of an out-of-court settlement by asserting that nothing is legally impossible.
He said to our reporter, “Let’s cross our fingers.”
