The South-West Elders Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday insisted that Gov. Mala Buni of Yobe remained the Chairman of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the party.

A former House of Representatives member from Oyo, Rep. Lateef Ali, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said that any other person laying claim to Buni’s position was “a usurper, who would be challenged in a court of law.

Ali said, “The All Progressives Congress (APC) Elders’ Council (South-West) is compelled to make its intervention known to the world on the lingering issues in the party.

“We categorically declare that Mai Mala Buni, remains the chairman of the CECPC of the APC.

“Our assertion became imperative to forestall further confusion as to who the chairman of the CECPC is, which requires that we responsibly play our role as elders who must not allow things to go irretrievably bad before speaking out.

“We advise that the circumstances that saw Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger State presiding over a meeting of CECPC must be properly situated and viewed from the right context.

“The facts have been sufficiently proven that Bello only stood in for Buni in the absence of any other senior member of the committee to do so.

“We appeal to APC stakeholders to allow reason to prevail at this very sensitive stage in the months before the general election so that the party does not end up becoming a victim of an “own goal”.

Gov. Bello on Monday denied taking over the leadership of the APC CECPC as speculated by some media organisations.

Bello said this when he spoke with newsmen shortly after heading a meeting of the APC CECPC at the party’s national secretariat.

He said that he met with APC State Chairmen as well as inaugurated some newly elected State Chairmen.