A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Comrade Daniel Onjeh has told National Chairman of the party, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje and members of the National Working Committee (NWC) to treat his petition against the suspended party chairman in Benue Augustine Agada or resign.
In a letter March 25, 2024 addressed to the APC NWC through the National Chairman, Onjeh stated that the National leadership and NWC members lacked the moral rectitude to issue directives to any member of the party when they were not upholding the spirit and letters of the party’s constitution.
Onjeh’s letter is coming on the heels of the statement by the party’s NWC after its 146th meeting in Abuja on March 20 where it resolved that all ongoing cases filed in the name of the party or associated with matters concerning the party, and involving party members in the Benue chapter must be discontinued and withdrawn from the courts within the next seven days.
The party further threatened that failure to comply with the resolution will result in disciplinary action against any member responsible for such suits, including immediate suspension and ultimately expulsion from the Party.
But Onjeh frowned at what he called the NWC’s apparent utter disregard for his petition dated January 22, 2024 and subsequent reminder on February 6, 2024 where he alleged anti-party activities against Agada.
He also accused the suspended chairman of swapping the party agents (whose enlistment fees Onjeh allegedly earlier paid for) with persons that were not members of the APC; withholding party tags from party agents in Onjeh’s ward of Orokam District in Ogbadibo LGA to prevent them from performing their lawful duty of protecting Onjeh’s votes at the polling unit level; withholding all party funds meant for the 2023 election-day logistics in Benue South; meeting and pleading with the then APC deputy gubernatorial candidate of Benue State, Dr. Sam Ode, (now the Deputy Governor of the state) to work for Onjeh’s opponent, Senator Abba Moro (the current Senate Minority Leader); and funding Sen. Moro’s 2023 senatorial campaign to the tune of at least N9m.
Onjeh alleged that these grievous infractions were committed by Agada with the aim of sabotaging him and undermining his electoral chances and bringing the APC in Benue South Senatorial District (Zone C) to disrepute.
Noting that the NWC’s failure to address his petition was a clear statement that they had taken sides with the injustice that festered in the Benue chapter, Onjeh added that the NWC failed in one of its cardinal constitutional duties and responsibilities, principally Article 13, Section 3.3. A (v) which states that: “The NWC shall Exercise control and take disciplinary actions on all organs, officers and members of the Party and determine appeals brought before it by any member or organ of the Party.”
Onjeh was further of the view that the progressive members of the APC in Benue State will disregard the directive of the party to withdraw their relevant pending cases in court, adding that propriety and natural justice demands that the NWC must explain to him why it refused to attend to his petition, bearing in mind that justice deferred is justice denied. “Let it be reminded that we, the members of the APC, respect the NWC only because we are bound by one document: the party constitution. So, as long as it disrespects that document, we also shall not be morally bound to abide by its directives because its noncompliance with the constitution deprives it of any modicum of moral rectitude and the right to issue a directive or to enforce it,” stated Onjeh.
The former Chairman of the Governing Board of PRODA, Enugu, further alleged that the NWC’s resolution was an overt endorsement of Mr. Augustine Agada’s gross anti-party activities. “It is a pat on the back of an egregious offender, a barefaced compromise of good conscience and a desecration of the party constitution, its principles, and mores. By this action, the NWC has killed the very spirit of the letters of the APC Constitution.”
“Let me state categorically that as long as the NWC fails to abide by the party constitution, we, the progressive members of the APC in Benue State, shall not abide by its directives. We shall not withdraw any case in court as we cannot be gagged into silence nor be cowed into submitting our necks to the slaughter slaps of injustice. Ubi jus ubi remedium is a Latin legal maxim that translates to ‘where there is a right, there is a remedy.’ It encapsulates the principle that when a legal right is violated, the law provides a corresponding remedy or relief to the aggrieved party,” Onjeh stated.
The former fiery student activist, who held the position of President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) from 2002 to 2003, informed the APC NWC that his petition to the National Secretariat was independent of the action taken at Agada’s ward, and that it was also not in contention in court.
He tasked the National Secretariat has to live up to its responsibility in line with Article 13, and Article 21 of the APC Constitution.
Onjeh stated that in the face of the weighty allegations he leveled against Agada in his petition, it was disappointing that the NWC breezed through, or ignored them, and issued a contrary directive. By this act, according to Onjeh, the NWC has compromised its integrity.
“If it cannot address a straight-jacketed issue such as the one raised in my petition, which was replete with compelling material evidence, even mentioning the names of the current deputy governor of Benue State whom Mr. Agada approached on behalf of Sen. Moro, and Mr. James Ornguga (the Organizing Secretary of the party who witnessed the swapping of my agents), both of whom can validate my evidence, then its members have no business representing us in that organ of the party. They should therefore resign. The party’s national chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, should take ultimate responsibility for the NWC’s failure and resign as well,” noted Onjeh.
The APC chieftain argued ignoring a petition makes a mockery of the NWC because a lower party organ, a council ward, acted promptly in accordance with the party constitution and treated the petition within the stipulated timeframe, adding that siding with Agada sets a wrong precedence for the party and our nation’s democracy.
“The APC Constitution stipulates that once a pronouncement has been made by a council ward if you are not satisfied with it, you should go to your Local Government Exco and appeal. From there on to the State EXCO. And, until you are cleared at the state level, you stand suspended. The NWC knew this constitutional procedure and yet it circumvented the Constitution,” Onjeh stressed.
He fingered a federal appointee from Benue State to be the one behind the current crisis in the Benue APC.
He added that if the members of the NWC searched their consciences, they will find that the hand acting from behind is the one influencing them.
“What is the point of establishing a political party? Any student of political science will tell you that, from POL 101, the fundament objective of a political party is to capture power. That is why the highest offence any party member can commit against a party is antiparty activities. Yet, Mr. Agada was caught red-handed and the NWC is dilly-dallying with the case because it is in bed with the big name that is fighting progressive APC members in Benue State,” alleged Onjeh.
Noting that the APC at the national level prefers the confederacy of the dark forces that held back the development of Benue State since the inception of the fourth republic, Onjeh stated that the party’s current alignment has pitched it against the majority of Benue State people.
He added that the good people of the state wondered why the NWC was bent on dragging it back to the socioeconomic quagmire it used to wallow in with past administrations in the state. He noted that before the advent of the current administration of Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, there was nothing on the ground to show the presence of governance in the state since 1999.
Onjeh stated that he knew his rights and how to seek them without the prompting of a third party, adding that the insinuation that Governor Alia was using him to prosecute a proxy was part of a grand scheme to undermine the Governor.
“Contrary to the lies the NWC is being fed, even though the party provided a platform for Fr. Alia to contest for the governorship of Benue State, he, as a reputable priest for over 32 years came to the political scene with his clout and influence and enabled us win elections all over Benue State.
” If his clout did not help the party win elections in 2023, why did the party not win in 2019? Everybody in APC, from top to bottom, the high and mighty, lost elections in 2019. All the APC senators failed to regain their seats in the 2019 elections. Fr. Alia came to save the APC in 2023. His candidature helped to neutralize the propaganda around the Tinubu/Shetima Muslim-Muslim ticket. His presence in the political fray facilitated the winning votes Tinubu obtained in Benue State,” he submitted.
Onjeh informed the APC NWC that Governor Alia had committed to serving the people of Benue State in accordance with the principles and manifesto of the APC. Hence, he expects the national leadership of the APC to support him, rather than joining hands with his traducers to sabotage him.
“The NWC cannot, and dare not, announce the suspension of anybody who ignores their kangaroo directive. It cannot pronounce any disciplinary action against any conscientious objector because it has desecrated the Constitution, the very document from which it derives its powers. It is embarrassing and disappointing for the NWC to do what it did,” stated Onjeh.
Onjeh was further of the view that the NWC has exposed the fact that Augustine Agada did not sabotage his election as a lone wolf, but as a part of a pack, noting that some members of the Benue chapter of the APC have for long been working with a Senator to launch attacks on the person of Governor Alia.
“The only way the APC NWC can redeem itself, in Onjeh’s opinion, is to reconvene, and according to the party constitution, set up a fact-finding committee to attend to his petition, after which the Committee should submit its findings to the NWC. Onjeh said this is what the NWC should do, rather than being in cohorts with dark vested interests to undermine Governor Alia.
“How the NWC treats my petition and the progressive APC members in Benue State will define our relationship with it going forward. Its dilly-dallying on the petition issue has been causing the party national embarrassment,” Onjeh stated.
