APC leaders at daggers drawn in Delta as crisis worsens

 

Following the crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress, APC leaders at daggers drawn in Delta as crisis worsens.

The APC crisis has taken a different dimension in Delta as Deputy Senate President, DSP, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, representing Delta Central Senatorial District and Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, representing Delta North Senatorial district becomes the most influential power brokers in the state.

Deputy Senate President, DSP, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, representing Delta Central Senatorial District and Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, representing Delta North Senatorial district recently defected from Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to APC.

The crisis has worsened seeing their dominance being risen against by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment and chairman of the party’s Leaders’ Council in the state, Festus Keyamo, SAN. This is backed by other leaders including serial governorship candidate, Olorogun Great Ogboru.

This climaxed last Saturday with the ward congresses boycotted by the leasers and party members loyal to the Minister of State for Labour & Employment and Festus Keyamo, SAN.

Meanwhile Former speaker of Delta House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Victor Ochei, co-chairman of the Leaders Council, Dr. Alex Ideh, another former Speaker, Delta House of Assembly, Monday Igbuya, former Executive Director, Projects, NDDC, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, Dr. (Mrs.) Marian Ali, AVM Okorodudu (retd.), Dr. Eugene Okolocha and Hon George Timinimi are unanimous in their rejection of the current happenings in the party. Source: Vangaurd

The council cannot be silent in the face of the monumental catastrophe which the said decision portrays for the future of our great party if not corrected, neither can the Council bury her head in the sands like the proverbial ostrich in hope that the definite arrows of the opposition parties will not hit its un-hindered target. This statement is necessitated for the sake of posterity and to make the councils’ position clear.

We hereby categorically state that we have since informed all party members to boycott the said ward congresses as same is devoid of any legitimacy in both procedure and substance as it relates to the guidelines (and in the face of the Supreme Court judgment, the legitimacy of those guidelines may be called to question later).

We are confident that the duty to set things right now falls on us and we shall do that for the sake of posterity. We shall give further updates on actions already taken and subsequent decisions to follow

The Leaders Council in a statement by Keyamo

The recent decision of the Supreme court in the case involving Ondo State between Jegede and Akeredolu has shown that our great party narrowly escaped the judges’ gavel which would have sent our hard-earned victory in Ondo state into the waiting arms of the opposition party, the PDP.

The narrow split decision of 4-3 deliberated amongst others on the legality of Gov. Mai Mala Buni as a sitting governor to run the affairs of our great party as Chairman of the caretaker committee.

The minority decision contended that our great party ought to have been sent packing from the Ondo State Government House on the basis that Gov. Mai Mala Buni being a siting governor and also concurrently serving as Chairman of the APC caretaker committee offends Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and our own Article 17 of the APC Constitution, having signed the nomination with which Gov. Akeredolu was selected as our party’s candidate in Ondo State.

The said minority decision portrayed that the official actions of Gov. Mai Mala Buni serving as Chairman of the APC Caretaker Committee in respect of our great party is a nullity. The council is of the opinion that the saving grace by the technicality-based majority judgment of the apex court wherein the non-joinder of the said chairman of the APC caretaker committee to the suit was the basis for our narrow escape should be something with which we should not further gamble.

It must be known that the decision by our great party to proceed with the ward congresses in Delta state and across the country is a ‘gamble taken too far’. Perhaps it is pertinent to take the party through memory lane via one of the most recent ill fortunes of the party in Zamfara state, where all the victories of the party in that state were overturned in one fell swoop. The Zamfara State episode promises to be a child’s play in terms of the monumental kill-stroke which this decision is positioned to deal to our great party if not reversed.

Assuming, but not conceding, that the contrary interpretations of this clear and un-ambiguous judgment by forces who wish to go ahead with this botched congresses were probable, the question that must be answered is that; ‘should we gamble the entire ambition, fortunes and structure of our great party on probabilities’?

The resort to reasoning by temporarily suspending these ward congresses until a new leadership which comes without any legal liabilities is inaugurated will cost the party nothing and consequently leave the same with a clear future not hindered by any pending legal death-blow. Let us eschew ego and personal ambitions and be properly guided on this.

On another hand, the said fatal decision to go ahead with the said ward congresses was made without consideration to the fact that the same was already procedurally botched in Delta state and many other states as well, where pockets of court litigations have already been set in motion. In particular regard to our dear Delta state, the events have been particularly an embarrassment. “Thousands of party faithful made payments worth millions of naira to the provided party accounts within the timetable stipulated in the guidelines, but were not issued with forms. This is coming in the light of revelations given by the party agents sent for the exercise, wherein the said forms were hijacked by fellows,  who are loyal to a man that has done nothing more than to cause rancor within the party ranks due to his personal interests.

However, the said forms which were hijacked were subsequently distributed to the un-grounded loyalist of this stakeholder even though no payments were made to the bank. The said hijacked forms as at today the 31st day of July 2021, have not been submitted to the party. The question that comes to mind has to do with the essence of the unnecessary hijack of same.

According to the State Leaders Council

Blissnaija also gathered that the Delta State Caucus of the APC, yesterday, passed a vote of implicit confidence on the Governor Buni-chaired Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee, CECPC for the successful conduct of ward congress of the party across the country.

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