Uzodinma Reportedly Targeted for Removal as PGF Chair Over Shettima’s Role in Tinubu’s Form Submission

President Bola Tinubu is expected to announce his running mate for the 2027 presidential election this week.

Sources that spoke to Nigerian Tribune said there was a slight fallout when Tinubu submitted his Expression of Interest and Nomination forms for the All Progressives Congress (APC) through the chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Senator Hope Uzodinma.

The source said Uzodinma had taken the forms to the vice president, Kashim Shettima, and that both had gone to the APC national secretariat to submit them.

The findings of the above publication showed that Villa operatives were not happy with Shettima’s involvement in the process of submission of the forms and that it made it seem as if all the dust raised about his eligibility for the position in the 2027 elections had been laid to rest.

With Shettima stealing the show at the form submission venue, some Villa operatives were said to have gone to work and were allowed to shake the Imo State governor a bit, to check his loyalty to the system.

It was also said that Uzodinma tried to drag Senate President Godswill Akpabio into the forms submission process, but Akpabio was said to have escaped the show by telling the emissary that he was already on his way to plenary, a source said.

A development had one fallout for Uzodinma, which was an attempt by some members of the PGF to unseat him, an uprising that was crushed following what sources described as a swift intervention by President Bola Tinubu.

It was learnt that the presidency did not call for the total removal of Uzodinma but the plan was to “shake him small.” Later reports indicated that an investigation had been launched into funds related to the PGF. However, it was disclosed that the main reason for the resistance to the governor of Imo State was the vice president’s involvement in the submission of nomination forms.

“A source said the vice president’s involvement in the form submission process made it look like the president had settled for him, while at the time discussions were ongoing.’’

There were suggestions that the governor of Imo had taken steps deliberately to give that impression and it was decided that he should be investigated.

It was confirmed that the PGF chairman made what a source described as a “inadvertent error” and it was decided that he should be spared from any further action, sources further said.

Sources said President Tinubu was said to be on the verge of succumbing to pressure and allowing Shettima on the ticket but there were still some “T’s to be crossed and “I’s to be dotted before conclusion.”

It was also learned outside Shettima that the feud which almost cost the Imo State governor the position of PGF is also a source of the tense moments being experienced by the camp of the Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara.

Fubara had a tough job scaling the screening process for the APC early last week, but was eventually cleared to partake in the primaries which seemed to be skewed against his loyalists.

The dust had settled on the Uzodinma saga and Fubara too was gathered to start heaving sighs of relief.