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Tag: Odigie Oyegun

  • Defection: Oshiomole’s emergence saved APC from collapse – Okorocha

    Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has called on stakeholders and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to support the National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomole as he stabilises  the party.

    The Imo governor in a statement signed by his Chief Press  Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, stated that Oshiomole’s emergence saved APC from implosion.

    He observed that the party would have totally collapsed if the former National Chairman of the party, Odigie Oyegun and the National Working Committee were allowed to pilot the affairs of the party for another one year as proposed with the tenure elongation.

    According to Okorocha, “with the scenarios that have played out within the fold of the APC, at the moment and in less than one month after the National Convention of the Party, it is obvious that the emergence of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as National Chairman has saved the party from an impending catastrophe”.

    “With the unfolding developments in the party, the story would have been very nauseating if there was no National Convention and if Adams Oshiomhole had not emerged as the National Chairman of the Party”.

    “It can also be argued that some of the proponents of tenure elongation were innocently doing so without having an overview of the entire disturbing picture behind the scheming for elongation of tenure. All these defections, as we all could see, were never planned in the past few weeks. The coming of Oshiomhole just forced the cat out of the bag.

    “With the events too, leaders of the party could now see the wisdom in jettisoning the clamour for tenure elongation for the John Oyegun led National Working Committee (SWC) members, and opting for a National Convention to elect new officers. In the circumstance, those who opposed the elongation stuff and insisted on convention should now be commended”.

    Okorocha was also quoted as saying  that, “one could easily imagine what would have been the case if the party had allowed the Oyegun-led SWC to continue and what would have happened at the party’s primaries especially that of Presidency.

    “What is happening in the party now could not have been planned and executed within these few weeks Oshiomhole took over as the National Chairman of the party. Rather, his coming only altered the plan of those who wanted to destroy APC to serve personal interests.

    “When the issue of elongation came up, we heard a lot of stories why some of those behind the undemocratic demand were persistent on that. That, there was an arrangement somewhere to shortchange President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential primary for 2019. And with events of the moment, that claim has got an alibi.

    Read also: 13 APC LG chairmen defect to PDP

    “In other words, Oshiomhole’s coming was timely. He came at the appropriate time. He is on it and will get it right. All we need to do is to support him. APC has come to stay as number one party in the Country and even in Africa. And whatever that is happening in the party now are indices of Party Politics and they have nothing to do with the fortunes of the party either now or in 2019.

    “In 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari will be re-elected by Nigerians. The Party will also have more governors and more legislators elected by the electorate because the records are available to show that we have done well in four years compared with the sixteen years spent by the other party.

    “Adams Oshiomhole has the political will and all it takes to make APC an institution that we shall all be proud of. We know his capacity and that was why we all supported him. He will drive us safely to our destination by the grace of God”.

  • Ekiti Primary: Al-Makura commends process

    Alhaji Tanko Al-Makura, Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC) Ekiti Governorship Primary Election Committee, has attributed the success of Saturday’s primary to mature conduct of aspirants and delegates.

    He made this known on Monday in Abuja while presenting the committee’s report on the primary election to National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

    Al-Makura, governor of Nassarawa state, said that delegates and other party members supported the process with cooperation and orderly behaviour.

    According to him, in spite of the rains, the delegates carried themselves in a very mature way and even embraced themselves after the results were announced.

    The governor urged the party’s leadership to leverage the solidarity exhibited by members at the primary to ensure cohesion among its members, especially in Ekiti.

    Read Also: Ekiti 2018: INEC promises not to compromise standard

    He blamed the disruption that led to the botched May 5 primary to activities of hoodlums who took advantage of security lapses to cause crisis.

    He commended members of his committee for their efforts, and also thanked the party’s leadership for the opportunity given to the members to serve.

    Receiving the report, Odigie-Oyegun praised the aspirants for their spirit of sportsmanship, adding that the disrupted primary gave the party an opportunity to organise a perfect one.

    According to him, the committee, aspirants and delegates at the primary deserve a gold medal.

    The chairman announced that the party’s leadership had started work at consolidating on the victory recorded at the primary.

    “We are working to ensure that the victory you have started is carried through, come July 14, the governorship election in Ekiti,” he said.

    He said that the APC was taking the Ekiti governorship poll seriously “to redeem the state from what a very abusive government”.

    According to Odigie-Oyegun, Ekiti state present governor is very abusive and lacks decorum.

    NAN

     

  • Court dismisses suits challenging extension of APC’s NWC tenure

    Says suits overtaken by event‎s

     

    A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed two suits by five members of the All Progressive Congress (APC), challenging the purported extension of the tenure of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) members.

    In two judgments on Monday Justice Nnamdi Dimgba held that the suits have been over taken by events in view of the decision of the APC to reverse the alleged tenure elongation and proceed to conduct congresses nationwide to elect leaders to replace the incumbents, whose tenure will end on June 30 this year.

    Justice Dimgba said he dismissed the suit because their “subject matter have become academic, hypothetical and spent.”

    The judge said he was convinced there was an attempt to extend the tenure of the APC’s NWC, but that for some reasons, the party changed its mind.

    He said had the party not changed its mind, but proceeded to carry through the extension, such would have been unconstitutional and a violation of section 223 of the Constitution.

    The first suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/237/2018, was filed on March 8, 2018, by four APC members aspiring to run for leadership positions of the party, to challenge the extension of the tenures of the incumbent holders of the executive offices of the party.

    They are Ademorin Kuye from Lagos State; Sani Mayanchi from Zamfara State, and currently the Publicity Secretary of the party in the state; Are Mutiu also from Lagos State, and Machu Tokwat from Kaduna State.

    Named as respondents areINEC, the APC; Odigie-Oyegun (sued for himself and on behalf of the national, state, local government area, and ward officials of the APC elected between April and June 2014); and the National Organising Secretary of the party, Osita Isunaso.

    The second, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/219/2018 and filed by a member of the APC in Imo State, Mr. Okere Uzochukwu, on March 2, 2018. Listed as defendants are the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Uzochukwu, who said he intends to contest for the state chairmanship position of the party in Imo State, contended that the tenure extension was undemocratic and violated the provisions of the Constitution, the Electoral Act and the APC Constitution.

    In his judgment, Justice Dimgba said he took into account the fact that  the APC conducted its Ward Congress on April 5, and on May 12 at Local Government level, and fixed May 19 for the State congresses.

    He further noted that National Convention of the party, which was originally billed to take place today (Monday May 14), has been shifted to June, which indicates the party’s desire to hold a national convention with the aim of choosing new set of leaders.

    He added: “It has turned out that attempt to extend the tenure of the current officials of the 2nd defendant was abandoned,” and noted that the ongoing congresses being conducted by the APC implies that new officials would take over from the Odigie-Oyegun led Executives, upon expiration of their tenure on June 30.

    Earlier, the judge dismissed all processes filed against the suit, particularly those challenging the competence of the suit, the court’s jurisdiction and the plaintiffs’ locus standi.

  • Odigie-Oyegun, Oshiomhole and APC’s future

    BY the time he was through riding the emotional roller coaster of the past few weeks, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, had all but perished the idea of cobbling up a formidable coalition to retain his position as party boss. The deciding factor was President Muhammadu Buhari’s definitive statement indicating support for the younger and more agile former governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole. Between January and March, it had seemed like it would take a herculean effort to unhorse the adamant party chairman. He had the support and encouragement of most of the party’s governors, many of whom seethed in revolt against what they termed the obtruding influence of some national leaders of the APC. Party executives at all levels also appeared to vote for continuity, arguing with engaging self-centeredness that stability was paramount in what to them is an election year. The ding-dong battle of wills and wits, much of it based on legal cum electoral sophistry, continued in favour of Mr Odigie-Oyegun until the vacillating president finally put his foot down.

    Now, with Mr Oshiomhole certain to enjoy coronation at the party’s national convention, probably sometime in June, Mr Odigie-Oyegun’s fate seems sealed, except he can make the heavens fall. But neither he nor any of the voluble governors who had sworn to stand by him through thick and thin has the appetite to take on the president. They had all hoped to sway the president by the massive support shown their nervous chairman, and had even made a show of opposing the president by citing many constitutional and legal provisions in support of their stand. As persuasive as the provisions were, and as copious and convincing as the pro-Odigie-Oyegun forces were, they all came a cropper once the president took a stand.

    In fact, when the ding-dong was still going on, the party chairman had made cynical allusions to the futility of the media campaign engineered against his person, obviously referring to this newspaper. But the smug was soon wiped off his face when the president, weighing his chances in the coming polls, and perhaps convinced that the legal ground on which the discordant options the party was inclined to embrace was wafer thin, found it enormously attractive to repudiate Mr Odigie-Oyegun and promote Mr Oshiomhole’s candidature. Given the age of the chairman, not to say his ineffectiveness in partisan politics at the local level and his inability to offer the party the inspiring leadership needed to overwhelm the opposition, he will probably retire into the background once this is all over. He fought a bold and courageous tenure elongation fight to retain his office for an extended period — or at least till after the next general elections — but in the end, the cards were heavily stacked against him.

    If Mr Odigie-Oyegun can somehow manage to efficiently organise the May-June party congresses and convention with the aplomb he claims to possess, the party might experience some lift, some renewal, some energy, even some added cohesion. But nothing is cast in granite. Many safe assumptions can still go wrong if the president does not continue to put his foot down as severely as he has done lately. The chairman’s supporters may have been cajoled into repudiating their previous objectives of either temporary tenure elongation or even four additional years for the party’s executives, but nothing suggests that their bitterness has abated, or that they have become resigned to admitting defeat or supporting the new officials who will be elected at the coming congresses and convention. In fact, they will now probably be more determined to ensure that the tendency represented by Mr Odigi-Oyegun should fill vacant positions and influence the thinking of the party in the foreseeable future. They know by instinct that as powerful as the president may be, there is a limit to how widely and how long he can ride roughshod over their feelings or the party.

    The party may at last have been coaxed into some form of peaceful resolution of the crisis ravaging their ranks, a kind of unity they are unaccustomed to, a unity they dare not hope is real or even achievable. However, that peace is unlikely to be more than tentative for reasons party leaders know all too well. The APC, despite its grandstanding and ideals, never seemed structured right from its foundations to unite or to operate as a formidable and enduring party. It is an agglomeration of strange bedfellows, competing ideologies, and frantic and quarrelsome leaders. That they won the last general elections was, among other factors, probably because the former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), expired under its own weight of contradictions and lethargy. Since the APC could not invest itself with the energy and vision needed to crown its electoral effort with permanence and strength, it led to muted but bitter factionalism within the party, a division that is now vented through the fissures among party leaders, cracks which the president has now spread a thin veneer of normality.

    If the APC should assume its problems would be resolved by the exit of the disputatious Mr Odigie-Oyegun and the entry of the frenetic Mr Oshiomhole, they cannot be more mistaken. The current chairman is simply a manifestation of the lack of order and clear structure in the party. It is probably true that had he possessed the neutrality and political acumen needed to anchor the party firmly, both operationally and ideologically, he would have built the party into a formidable machine for electoral conquests as well as provided the balance the party’s ideological vacuum has made frustratingly slow in coming. Ordinarily, a president under the Nigerian constitution has tremendous influence in shaping the integrity and direction of the party. But the reluctance of President Buhari to help shape that direction and integrity in the last three years has partly led to the disarray in the party as APC leaders fight to fill the vacuum.

    Apart from the dissension among party leaders, the young APC needed to make a commanding ideological statement as well as undergird its operations with unambiguous and solid philosophical frameworks. Since the president has remained a proud conservative, and since he has shunned the complexities of envisioning a transcendental philosophical direction for the party, the APC was left without a soul, not to talk of a soul it could call its own. To some extent, the country could tell what the president stands for, as confusing and simplistic and contradictory as these sometimes are, but no one can tell what the party really stands for or is prepared to even die for. Perhaps the 2019 campaigns would help the party forge that identity.

    It is against these yawning partisan lacunae that Mr Oshiomhole is sold by the president and many party leaders and faithful as the deus ex machina to vivify party organisation and activism, a redeemer to extricate the party from the confusion stultifying its vision and identity. There is some sense in sharing this partisan delusion. Mr Oshiomhole has a vibrant labour union background, once ruled Edo State with a fair degree of success, largely has a mind of his own, and possesses the instinct of an accomplished negotiator and dealmaker. But his unionism is mistaken for an ideology, for the former governor is really nothing more than an enthusiastic proponent of pragmatism, a pragmatism the party apparently hopes to profit from when it should really flourish more by the former governor’s inexistent but distinguishing progressivism.

    Though he is more likely to run the party much more firmly and perhaps far better than Mr Odigie-Oyegun, there is, however, nothing in Mr Oshiomhole’s background to indicate that he has the depth and vision required to recast the party’s wobbly foundation. The fundamental problem facing the party is not just its lack of a lofty and sturdy foundation, but the inability of the president himself to imbue the party with anything properly resembling a concise and coherent body of ideas, and his refusal to conceive a leitmotif around which the party’s competing factions could coalesce and draw breath. Given his aggressiveness and can-do spirit, Mr Oshiomhole should be able to make a dent on the problems confronting the party. But he is unlikely to fashion the APC into the inspiring and revolutionary organ needed to make it run as a disciplined political organisation, let alone one that can impose discipline and exert influence on its elected officials.

    Above all, by enabling the president to virtually singlehandedly determine who would be the party’s chairman, the APC may have inadvertently conferred on the president dictatorial powers certain to undermine the party in the long run. The PDP fell on that obsolete sword. If the APC will not discipline itself to find the right balance between its governors, party leaders and the presidency in electing and selecting its officials, especially given the almost total lack of ideological flavour and depth in the party, it is a question of time before they experience the withering rejection that is still causing the PDP so much distress.

  • APC stakeholders in Imo want NWC to save party from Okorocha

    Imo, All Progressives Congress ( APC ) Stakeholders Forum has pleaded with the party´s National Working Committee ( NWC ) to intervene in the crisis currently rocking its ranks.

    Mr Oke Ikoro, the Chairman of the forum, made the plea on Wednesday in Abuja when a delegation of the forum visited the NWC.

    According to him, APC in Imo has been appropriated by Gov. Rochas Okorocha who ´´ has completely privatised the party´´ through his activities. Ikoro said there was so much anger, acrimony and bitterness among party members.

    ´´This is why we have come here to lend our grievances to the NWC, we came to express our disappointment on the leadership of Gov. Rochas Okorocha, his activities and the APC under him.

    ´´ We didn´t want to say this with word of mouth but we have put it in writing so that you can have a critical look at it after we had gone,´´ he said.

    Ikoro  said that the stakeholders had to bring the matter to NWC after trying without success to address it at the state level.

    He alleged that some of the governor´s actions in the state were not friendly and were forcing members out of the party rather than bringing membership to the fold.

    Ikoro  said the actions included the demolition of markets and indiscriminate revocation of land titles without due process. He also criticised the governor´s plan to install his son-in-law as the next governor of Imo.

    Ikoro said ´´all we are saying is that due process should be followed and that the state funds should not be wasted.´´

    According to him, people are exiting from the party because of the highhandedness of the governor.

    ´´ We are calling on the party leadership to call the governor to order and to separate the party from him, ´´ he said.

    Ikoro expressed optimism that as the highest organ of the party empowered to bring peace and unity, the matter would be addressed by the NWC.

    Read Also: APC clears Fayemi, Oni, Ojudu, 30 others for Ekiti primaries

    ´´Furthermore, on Saturday, the ward congresses of the party will start and we know that what the governor is planning is to hijack the process,´´ he said.

    He alleged that the governor`s plan was to influence the congress by ensuring that his cronies were put in elective offices.

    He said that the party leadership should intervene to prevent the governor from hijacking the process.

    In his response, the APC National Chairman, Chief Odigie-Oyegun, said there was nothing to celebrate in the report.

    He said that the saving grace was that the stakeholders were all dedicated and did not storm out of the party.

    He said Imo must lead in the South- East to ensure the party´s electoral victory in 2019 and as such the unity of the party was critical to achieve the goal.

    ´´ Some controversies are necessary to bring about unity that will bring victory, together Imo state will be almost a certainty but we will be in deep trouble if we are divided.

    ´´Without any prejudice, I want to assure you that we, on our side, will do everything possible to take up your complaints and reservations.

    ´´We will talk to the other side so that an acceptable compromise and understanding is reached to make it possible for us to work as one party and one political fighting force.

    ´´I am certainly not unaware of the issues; as the party’s national chairman, all these things end up directly or indirectly on my desk, “he said.

    The party chairman added that whatever the rights and the wrongs of both sides were, victory could only come through unity.

    He said that to get unity, there must be justice, adding: “while am insisting on a united fighting force, I also insist that there is justice.’’

    Odigie-Oyegun said that as far as the coming party congresses were concerned, the leadership was determined to ensure free, fair and level playing field for all aspirants in spite of what anyone thought.

    He charged the stakeholders to prove their worth by ensuring that the right things were done and that true reconciliation was achieved in the party in Imo.

    NAN

  • Unmasking of Odigie-Oyegun

    John Odigie-Oyegun, the chairman of APC, is a man of many colours. To his admirers, he is ‘a purist, a democrat, a strategist; and a tactician, adept in political engineering. But many of his critics will swear, he is a ‘weak, unprincipled, ‘come and chop’ politician. If you ask Itse Sagay, he will not hesitate to tell you that “the leadership of APC is comprised of not only most unprincipled group of people who are “encouraging and accepting rogues…but also of appeasers set to destroy the party because they are weak and unable to confront evil”.

    With President Buhari’s last week rejection of tenure elongation for Odigie-Oyegun, and his National Working Committee (NWC), the sun finally appears set for a man whose politics like those of other military-created ‘new breed politicians’ is defined by divide and rule tactics. Buhari seems to have finally seen through the political subterfuge of Oyegun who after failing to hold congress or conduct elections for three years now cites impending “party elections, second set of elections of governmental aspirants, other Houses of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate, governorship and so on”, as justification for term elongation which, according to the president is not only undemocratic but a breach of APC as well as the country’s constitutions.

    It must be remembered that Odigie-Oyegun was a military creation. Following the vacuum created in the bureaucracy by Murtala Mohammed and Obasanjo ‘bureaucratic cleansing’ when they took over power in 1975, Oyegun became one of the nation’s youngest permanent secretary at 37 and after only 13 years in service. His fortune has been on the rise ever since. He went on to become the governor of Edo State in 1992 under Babangida’s ill-fated third republic, ANPP chairman at the onset of the fourth republic, and APC chairman in 2014.

    For several weeks after APC’s 2015 victory, secured by a coalition of political parties led by Tinubu’s ACN and Buhari’s CPC, with disparate world views, Oyegun sat back to enjoy the vicious battle for spoils of war by the coalition parties.  The meeting of APC’s elected senators with Buhari fixed for the morning of inauguration of senate presidency was seen by many as part of the political subterfuge. Bukola Saraki, who first claimed not to have been informed of the meeting, later confessed hiding inside a small car, parked in front of the Senate building for over three hours to ensure his fellow 51 APC senators fully settled down for a meeting with the president in another venue before sneaking into the Senate chambers where he was proclaimed Senate President by predominantly PDP senators.

    Treachery within a political party, a cult-like association to which you either belong or not, are unpardonable. But rather than use the big stick to discipline Saraki for his perfidy, Oyegun opted for what Professor Itse Sagay described as policy of appeasement. According to him   “John Odigie-Oyegun and one Bolaji Abdullahi, Saraki’s Man Friday are appeasers … dinning with the devil who will destroy the party”.

    Tinubu, a leading member of the coalition that brought Buhari to power, for insisting on party supremacy, was demonized by Oyegun who in turn impressed it on politically naïve President Buhari that the remedy for eye problem was not eye removal.  A chasm was thus created between Buhari, Tinubu and the Senate. Oyegun was to become the sole beneficiary of the rift between the executive, the Senate and the party leadership at the national level.

    Beyond irreconcilable disagreement between the leadership of the party at the national level, the party soon descended into chaos in about 12 states of the federation. Kano which gave President Buhari the highest vote in 2015 is in turmoil over ego battle between Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, his predecessor in office while party followers that look up to the leadership for direction are in disarray. In Kaduna, where there are two factions of APC, el-Rufai, is locked in a battle of wits with Senator Shehu Sani, his most vocal critic. Just as in Kaduna, there are also two factions of APC in Gombe where disagreement over the 2015 primaries lingers on. In Borno State, Senator Abu Kyari governorship ambition was said to be the cause of the rift between him and Governor Kashim Shettima. In Bauchi, there is no love lost between Speaker Yakubu Dogara and Governor Mohammed Abubakar. In Ondo State, the rift between Akeredolu backed by Oyegun and Abraham backed by Bola Tinubu during the last election is yet to be bridged. In Kogi State where the governor is at war with Senator Melaye, Tony Momoh-led fact finding and reconciliation committee’s 300 page report has not been able to secure peace.

    With the party in disarray under Oyegun, President Buhari, serially betrayed, first by military politicians who deposed and imprisoned him for over three years for implementing a junta’s joint decision, and by politicians who abandoned him in the trenches to haggle for political appointments from victorious PDP, was driven to the embrace of his trusted “cousins and nephews’ who unfortunately do not share his pro-Nigeria sentiments.

    With the fortune of APC, with or without Buhari at stake in 2019, President Buhari appointed Bola Tinubu, the rejected corner stone to reconcile the warring APC factions. Giving a brief on what led to his appointment by Buhari, Tinubu recalled that “since the (2015) elections, there have been allegations of self-induced crisis resulting from merchandising of internal processes. We all must agree that the party was bound to suffer growing pains but not to the extent of losing part of the substantial goodwill that brought us to power.”

    But Oyegun doesn’t seem to bother about the squandering of the goodwill of APC supporters as long as he is in control. If we needed further evidence, Tinubu’s allegation that Oyegun breached ‘promised unalloyed support for {his} mission’ was all that was needed. Tinubu went on to add “Unfortunately, the spirit of understanding and of cooperative undertaking to revive the party seems not to have lived beyond the temporal confines of that meeting. Instead of being a bulwark of support as promised, you positioned yourself in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the progressive and democratic nature of the APC.”

    And finally, it has become difficult to make a distinction between APC and PDP once widely derided as a party of looters by the former. Although Oyegun proclaimed publicly while welcoming senators Florence Ita-Giwa and Marc Wabara to APC that “APC is not for integrity-challenged politicians currently within the radar of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)’, he has gone on to praise Orji Uzor Kalu, former governor of Abia State who has been facing EFCC charges for alleged corruption since the end of his tenure in 2007 “for making APC vibrant in the south-eastern part of the country.” He has welcomed with open hands, senators Musliu Obanikoro, Jim Nwobodo and many other former PDP stalwarts facing EFCC charges, creating in the process, credibility crisis for the president and the party.

    For many, it is a relief, that Oyegun, the master of political subterfuge who poses as a democrat has finally been unmasked. His quest for tenure elongation for himself and his executive officers across the 36 states of the federation would have meant tenure extension of all elected officials comprising the president, governors, and national and state assembly members.

    It is however a sad commentary on the true character of Nigerian political class, whether APC or PDP, that it has taken a converted democrat like President Buhari who would have been a major beneficiary of tenure elongation  and much persecuted Bola Tinubu, a committed democrat, to show that  Oyegun and some governors led by Rochas Okorocha, the chairman of APC governors forum who has been busy collecting signatories from political appointees to endorse his son-in-law as APC candidate in Imo State, are not different from other anti-democratic military-created new breed politicians such as Tom Ikimi and Tony Anenih, who in 1993 jointly supported the military to derail Babangida’s  eight years of fraudulent transition programme.

  • APC Caucus Meeting: We discussed serious issues, not my removal – Odigie-Oyegun

    The National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr John Odigie-Oyegun has said that the meeting of the party’s national caucus on Monday night discussed more serious issues but not about his removal from office.

    Odigie-Oyegun, who fielded questions from State House correspondents on the outcome of the meeting which was chaired  by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, said the meeting discussed the party’s report on true federalism.

    He dismissed the insinuation that the members of the national caucus deliberated on a court case instituted against him by some aggrieved members of the party.

    Some members of the APC had dragged the national chairman to court over what they described as “illegal tenure elongation’’

    Others alleged that Odigie-Oyegun had been running the accounts of the party without recourse to majority of national officers of the party.
    But  the party chairman said that the issue of his removal from office as being advocated by the aggrieved members had now become history.

    “No, the meeting concluded the agenda we started the last time we met which we did not complete.

    “Today we discussed true federalism, something a lot more serious, a lot more serious,’’ he added.

    Also commenting on the outcome of the meeting, the speaker of the House of Representatives Mr Yakubu Dogara said that it was a routine meeting of the party to set the agenda for the NEC holding on Tuesday.

    “All I can tell you is that there is a meeting which is routine and the caucus meeting is determined to set up an agenda of the NEC meeting tomorrow. And all I can tell you is that the agenda is well set.

    “I believe that it will be the responsibility of NEC to decide and after a decision is taken, some of our faithful members will address the press.

    “I don’t think it is in my place to divulge what was discussed.

    “Tactically, it is an agenda setting meeting and we have had that meeting but the main meeting will take place tomorrow,’’ Dogara said.

    Asked whether he was worried over the elongation of the tenure of the party chairman, Dogara said, “It is not a question of my being worried because I am just one perhaps of millions of APC members.

    “Like I said, certainly it’s going to be an agenda for the consideration of NEC, whatever NEC decides, that will be binding on all of us as faithful members of the party.”

    Also, The President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, described the meeting as “a good meeting’’, adding that members deliberated on a number of issues to do with the party’s constitution.

    “We deliberated a number of issues to do with the constitution of the party which are very important issues here, the constitution, and to prepare for NEC tomorrow, it was a good meeting,” he said.

    Gov. Aminu Masari of Katsina State, expressed delight with the  attendance and comments of members at the meeting

    “We discussed so many things – one of them is the proposed amendment of the constitution.

    “We are united as a party and we believe the amendment of the constitution would unite us more and we are happy with attendance and comments by members of the caucus,’’ he added.

    The meeting was attended by the Vice-President, Prof.  Yemi Osinbajo, and past state governors of  APC, members of the National Assembly, Secretary to the Government of the Federation , Mr Boss Mustapha and other cabinet ministers

    Two chieftains of the party, a former Lagos State Governor, Chief Bola Tinubu, and  Chief Bisi Akande as well as Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of Osun and Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara were absent at the meeting. (NAN)

  • Court sacks Abia APC exco led by Hon. Nwankpa

    An Abia high court sitting at Okpuala Ngwa and presided over by Hon Justice C. U. Okoroafor has sacked the state executive members of the All Progressives Congress ( APC ) led by Hon Donatus Nwankpa.

    The court order with the suit number NO: HIN/4/2018 was brought before the court by Bar Fabian Okonkwo, Engr Chris Okpechi and Hon Onyebuchi Igodo against APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Hon Donatus Nwankpa and three others.

    The order asked APC, Odigie-Oyegun, Alh. Mai Mala Bunu and Dr Muiz Banire to stop dealing with the Nwankpa and Bar Menyechi Onuoha and other members of the Abia executive committee pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit. 

    The order said, “The first to fourth respondents are restrained from dealing with the factional list of state, LGA and ward delegates sent to the national secretariat of the APC in Abuja by Nwankpa led state Exco in any manner until the substantive suit is determined.

    Speaking with The Nation in Umuahia the new state chairman of the party, Dr Emmanuel Aguzie Ndukwe said that the manner Nwankpa ran the Exco as if it is his personal property and using same for pecuniary means caused the Exco to be suspended.

    Ndukwe accused Nwankpa of running to money bags in the state and collecting money from them in the name of the party and thereafter making leaders against the laid downs rules of the APC.

    He said, “In view of his actions which are against the party, the party met on the 25th of November 2017 and suspended him and later went to court which granted an order restraining the national office of our party and others to stop recognizing him as Abia APC chairman”.

    “By this court order which is in our possession we are now the authentic and recognized Exco of APC in the state until the court order is vacated by a court of competent jurisdiction”.

    On the question about the APC rally held in the state where Nwankpa was recognized as the state chairman, Ndukwe said, “We are a law abiding party even when the national office was deceived to condone illegality which we allowed as we don’t want to be seen as divided house”.

    He said, “However that supposed rally you are talking about was not a rally as to us it never took place, how many national officers were there, to us there was no such rally as it was never in our history that such a rally ever took place in our state”.

    “Before now after our harmonization the two sides were asked to produce officers and Nwankpa’s side brought him as chairman while I came in as secretary and I am supposed to be the engine room of the party but was never allowed to function”.

    “Nwankpa hijacked the part structure and started holding meetings with people who are not members of our party and whose names do not appear on any party register and he has also been holding meetings with ward chairmen of the faction that produced him”.

    “We are going to hold our NEC meeting today (Tuesday) which I will attend as the state chairman and any attempt to stop me from being there as the state chairman will mean contempt of court which is a liable offense”.

    Ndukwe observed that the court order will not divide them rather that it has brought the desired unity which has been lacking, stressing that the court order has given them the impetus to work harder to take over government in the state.

    He noted that since the court judgement on the 8th of March this year, “There has been jubilation within and outside the party as most members have been very uncomfortable with the high handedness of the former chairman”.

  • Court insists on hearing Odigie-Oyegun, others in suit against APC’s tenure extension

    A Federal High Court in Abuja has rejected the move by some aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to void the party’s decision to extend the tenure of members of its National Executive Council (NEC).

    Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, in a ruling yesterday, rejected three key prayers in a motion ex-parte argued for the plaintiffs by their lawyer, Ahmed Raji (SAN).

    Those rejected include the  order of interim injunction restraining the party’s officials whose tenure extension is being challenged, from parading themselves as the party’s officials upon the expiration of their tenure on June 30, “unless they are democratically re-elected” at the party’s convention or congress organised for that purpose, pending the determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.

    The judge also rejected a prayer for an order of interim injunction restraining the third defendant (John Odigie-Oyegun) and other officials of the party elected between April and June 2014 from further parading themselves as officials of the party after June 30, 2018 “except they are re-elected at the convention or congress” of the party, pending the determination of the motion for interlocutory injunction.

    He also turned down a prayer for an order of interim injunction restraining the second and third defendants (APC and Odigie-Oyegun) “from further holding the fourth defendant (Osita Isunaso) as the National Organising Secretary” of the party “unless he is democratically elected at a convention/congress organised by the second defendant (APC) for that purpose”.

    Justice Dimgba, while rejecting the three prayers, noted that it would be “improper to grant them without hearing the respondents”.

    The judge elected to grant accelerated hearing of the suit.

    He said the court would prefer to determine the substantive suit before June 30, when the actual tenure of the affected APC officials would be deemed to be expired, rather than grant the interim orders.

    Justice Dimgba ordered that the respondents – the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), APC, Odigie-Oyegun and Isunaso – to be put on notice to enable them respond to the application for interim injunction.

    The judge also granted an order permitting the plaintiffs “to sue the third defendant (Odigie-Oyegun) in a representative capacity for himself and on behalf of the state, local government area, and Ward officials of the APC elected between April and June 2014”.

    He also granted leave to the plaintiffs to serve the originating summons and all other accompanying processes in the suit on the third and fourth defendants (Odigie-Oyegun and Isunaso) by substituted means through the 2nd defendant’s (APC) office at Plot 40, Blantyre Avenue, Wuse 2, Abuja”.

    The judge also gave an order “deeming the service of the originating summons and all other accompanying processes in this suit on the 3rd defendant (Odigie-Oyegun) in terms of Relief Two above, as proper service”.

    Justice Dimgba has adjourned to March 28 for the hearing of the plaintiffs’ motion for interlocutory injunction.

    A similar suit is also pending before the Federal High Court, Abuja filed by another aggrieved member of the APC  in Imo State, Okere Uzochukwu.

    Uzochukwu claimed to be an aspirant to the state chairmanship  position in his state.

  • APC chieftain sues Odigie-Oyegun over tenure extension

    APC chieftain sues Odigie-Oyegun over tenure extension

    An aggrieved All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Dr. Wale Ahmed, has taken the party’s national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, to court over what he described as illegal extension of his tenure.

    Ahmed, a party stalwart from Lagos, said the ruling party has violated its own  rules and principle on periodic national convention as stipulated by its constitution.

    Odigie-Oyegun, was elected chairman in June 2014 for a four year tenure, which would expires in June.

    The plaintiff said the chairman and other members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party were given illegal anticipatory tenure elongation to enable them put the national convention in abeyance, without due consideration for the APC constitution and 1999 Constitution.

    Section 223 (1a) and (2a), of the 1999 Constitution stipulates that  “the constitution and rules of a political party shall provide for the periodic election on a democratic basis of the principal officer and members of the executive committee or other governing body of the political party.”

    It also says: “the election of the officers or members of the executive committee of a political party shall be deemed to be periodical only if it is made at regular intervals not exceeding four years.”

    The  APC Constitution (2014 as amended) provides that : “all officers of the party elected or appointed into the party’s organs shall serve in such organs for a period of four years and shall be eligible for re-election or re-appointment for another period of four years only, provided that an officer elected or appointed to fill a vacancy arising from death, resignation or otherwise shall notwithstanding be eligible for election to the same office for two terms.”

    Joined in suit No. FHC/L/CS/364/18 before the Federal High Court, Lagos Division  are: the Deputy National Chairman (South), Chief Segun Oni;Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu; National Secretary Mallam Ibrahim Gubi; National Vice Chairman (Southwest) Chief Pius Akinyelure; the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Ahmed is praying the court to declare as null and void and of no effect the purported elongation of the tenure of the NEC, contrary to the extant laws.

    In the originating summons by his counsel, B.A.M Fashanu (SAN), the plaintiff claims  that the defendants, jointly or severally, have erred in law.

    He is praying the court for:”A declaration that the first to sixth defendants have no power under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,  1999, to extend the tenure of the elected organs/officers beyond four years from their election /inauguration

    “A declaration that the purported extension of the tenure of the extant National Working Committee (NWC) and /or other executive committees or their members of the All Progressives Congress at various levels for another 12 months from June 30, 2018 by the National Executive Committee of or by the All Progressives Congress, is illegal, null and void and of no effect

    “A declaration that any provision of the sixth defendant’s constitution or any memorandum, circular or pronouncement of the first to sixth defendants purporting to extend the tenure of the first to fifth defendants beyond their extant elected or inaugurated four year tenure is in conflict or is inconsistent with the provision of Section 223(1) (a) and  223 (2) (a) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and is null and void to the extent of its inconsistency.

    “An injunction restraining the first to sixth defendants, their servants and/or agents, from taking any steps to implement the purported tenure elongation of the presently elected/constituted organs/officers of the All Progressives Congress, which pronouncement or decision was made on or about the 27th of February, 2018, or in any manner howsoever, stay in office beyond four years from the date of their election/inauguration.

    “An injunction restraining the seventh defendant, its servants and /or agents, from recognising the decision or any decision of the first to sixth defendants to extend the tenure of the sixth defendant’s extant elected organs/officers beyond their elected/constituted four years, or, taking any step, in any manner howsoever, to implement such decision.”

    Ahmed, a former member of House of Assembly and one-time Commissioner for Special Duties said he is in  court to protect the image of the ruling party and the sanctity of the constitution.

    He said the APC should, through its convention, create a level playing field for all qualified members of the party who may wish to contest for any party office at the convention when the tenure of the executive committee expires in June.

    Ahmed added: “We must avoid a situation whereby a dangerous precedent will be laid by the deliberate violation of party constitution, rules and regulations on leadership recruitment and renewal of tenure. Our party is known for its avowed commitment to the rule of law, the due process and the constitution. We must obey our own laws and respect the constitution of the country.”

    Crisis had hit the APC, following the purported tenure elongation for the NEC and the NWC, following their Abuja meeting of January 26 and 27.

    While Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello told reporters that the NEC had granted one year tenure elongation to the Odigie-Oyegun-led NWC, his Zamfara State counterpart and Chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum, Abdulaziz Yari, said the NEC lacked the power to extend the tenure, adding that the power of the Convention to extend the tenure can only be exercised only by way of constitutional amendment.

    He said: “The power of the NEC of our party cannot go beyond doing so by way of constitution amendment. Article 30 of the APC Constitution and the schedules hereto, can be amended only by the National Convention of the party.

    “The process of amending the constitution is also expressly provided in Article 30 Sub-Section 2. This states: “Notice of any proposed amendment by any member or organ of the party shall be given to the National Secretary, at least, 14 days before the date of the National Convention. The Notice shall be in writing, shall contain a clear statement of the proposed amendment and reasons for the amendment.”