Politics

APC crisis: Party leaders defy President Buhari, head to court

Monday, July 13, 2020 at 10:59 PM by Jerrywright Ukwu

- Some APC chieftains are in court to challenge the party's NEC over the dissolution of the Oshiomhole-led NWC

- This is despite a pronouncement by President Muhammadu Buhari that all court cases be withdrawn

- The chieftains have defied the president and went a step further by filing their cases in courts

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A report by Leadership newspaper indicates that some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have ignored President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive on the party's crisis and have instituted court cases against the ruling party.

President Buhari had warned that no court case should be instituted and those already in court should be withdrawn.

The president's directive was endorsed by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) on the day Buhari made the pronouncement.

APC crisis: Party leaders defy President Buhari, head to court — The new caretaker committee of the party led by Gov Mai Bala Buni faces a major hurdle. Photo credit: APC media
Source: UGC

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Three weeks after the NEC meeting, an APC chieftain, Barrister Kalu Agu, approached the court with a fresh suit challenging NEC’s dissolution of the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC).

Agu, a youth leader of the party in Abia state, is questioning the powers of the party's NEC to sack the national leaders barely two years out of their constitutionally guaranteed four-year term of office.

He is also praying for an order of the Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside the dissolution of the NWC as resolved by the APC NEC meeting held at the presidential villa last month.

Agu, therefore, prayed the court for a declaration that the dissolution of the NWC as unconstitutional, illegal, null and void as well as a declaration that the recognition accorded the caretaker committee is unconstitutional and illegal.

Before Agu’s legal action, another APC chieftain in Lagos state, Chief Lateef Arigbaruwo, had also filed a suit against the party at the Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking the sack of the caretaker committee.

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Arigbaruwo, in the suit number FHC/L/CS/789/2020 also faulted the NEC meeting of the party held on Thursday, June 25.

The plaintiff, while asking the court to restrain the caretaker committee members from parading themselves in that capacity, also requested the court to grant an order allowing the APC national vice chairman (South-south), Mr Hilliard Eta, to pilot the affairs of the APC as acting national chairman and to preside at all meetings of the NWC and NEC.

Meanwhile, a recent media report indicates that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu seems to be the favoured candidate of the presidency ahead of the APC governorship primary election in Ondo state.

According to the report, not only as Governor Akeredolu favoured, the purported disqualification of Mr Segun Abraham, is an indication that the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been dumped by the presidency.

NWC dissolution: I remain loyal to President Buhari - Oshiomhole | Legit TV