APC planned to embarrass Saraki with expulsion before he defected

The governing All Progressives Congress (APC) had concluded plans to expel senate president Bukola Saraki from the fold, before Saraki pulled the rug from under their feet

Among the reasons Saraki cited for leaving the APC were blatant disregard for the rules of party administration, his prosecution and persecution for alleged corruption, alienation, and the emergence of "fifth columnists in the APC who were hell bent on scuttling peace efforts initiated by some leaders of the party".

A top source at APC headquarters in Abuja told Pulse that had Saraki not left the APC sooner, he would have been expelled from the party for anti-party activities and undermining the “party on whose platform he became senate president”.

The last straw

“The man would have been expelled. He has done a lot of damage to our party since he emerged senate president without the party’s blessings. We had finalized plans to expel him indefinitely.

"I believe leaked the plan to him and that’s why he had to leave before he was pushed”, this top ranking source in the APC hierarchy disclosed to Pulse on condition of anonymity because he had not been authorized to comment on the subject.

Another source in the governing party told Pulse that Saraki was no longer going to have a place in the APC after he supervised the defection of 15 APC senators on July 24, 2018.

“It was the last straw for us at the APC”, the source said. “There was no way he would have remained a part of us after all the destruction he supervised and after he practically sold the senate to the PDP on the altar this APC chieftain added.

Saraki's query

On the day Saraki defected, the APC made public a query it had issued the senate president over his “anti-party activities”.

The APC gave Saraki 48 hours to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against him for violating the party’s constitution.

In a resolution signed by its National Secretary, Mai Maila Buni, the APC accused Saraki of breaching Article 21 of its constitution and engaging in anti-party activities.

The APC alleged that Saraki “encouraged and facilitated an enabling environment for the defection of some senators who are members of the APC to the other opposition parties”.

Saraki was also accused of “deliberately refusing to screen nominees for appointments submitted” by the president.

“This has caused untold embarrassment and ridicule to the party and the government,” the party said.

Huge blow for Buhari's APC

32 House of Rep members, 15 senators and three State governors have since joined Saraki out of the APC.

The APC dissolved its executive committee in Saraki’s home State of Kwara, hours before the senate president’s defection.

The gale of defections are a huge blow for President Buhari’s APC—a loose coalition which rode on a wave of change to unseat the PDP from the center in 2015.

President Buhari announced in April that he will be seeking a second term in office in 2019. Pundits say the defections could weaken his base and leave him vulnerable ahead of his re-election campaign.

An aide of Saraki declined comments for this story.