APC NWC DIVIDED ON OSHIOMHOLE’S FATE
Party leaders disagree over NEC meeting Oshiomhole is gone—Obaseki camp
Amid an apparent division within the top echelon of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), there are reports of high level consultations to determine the fate of the embattled National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, at the party’s
National Executive Council (NEC) meeting slated for Tuesday, March 17, Daily Trust gathered yesterday.
While our correspondents gathered from reliable chieftains of the party that a notification for the meeting had been passed, the party’s National Legal Adviser and National Publicity Secretary, Babatunde Ogala and Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu respectively, in a statement jointly signed late yesterday, said the National Working Committee was dissociating itself from the said notification.
It was gathered while a faction within the NWC supports the proposed meeting, another faction is averse to it. They argued that NEC would meet every quarter and or at any time decided by the national chairman or on a request made in writing by at least twothirds of members of the NEC, provided that no fewer than a 14-day notice is given for the meeting to be summoned.
The statement added that the Deputy National Secretary of the party, Victor Giadom, who signed the notification, lacked the power to convey a NEC meeting, arguing that he was not directed by the national chairman to do so as stipulated by the party’s constitution.
With the emergency National Executive Council (NEC) of the APC scheduled to hold Tuesday, March 17, 2019, apart from the issue of appointing an Acting National Chairman, the resolution of cases of so-called suspension of members of the National Working Committee (NWC) would have to be addressed
But pro and anti Oshiomhole camps are said to be all out to ensure the actualisation of their plots on March 17, even as another faction with the party leadership presumably sympathetic to Oshiomhole, dismissed the notification for an emergency NEC meeting.
Daily Trust earlier gathered that members of the two camps are seriously recruiting and wooing members of NEC with mouth watering offers ahead of the emergency meeting.
Oshiomhole’s latest nightmare started on Wednesday when an Abuja High Court ordered the party to stop recognising him pending the determination of a substantive suit seeking his perpetual removal.
The national chairman who had previously survived numerous onslaughts rushed to a Federal High Court in Kano where he secured an order restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising any other person aside him as the national chairman of the party.
It was the pressure from the anti-Oshiomhole camp among governors of the APC that forced the party to convene the emergency NEC meeting which is expected to be attended by President Muhammadu Buhari.
But a member of the NEC who is pro-Oshiomhole said the plot to oust the former labour leader would be “fruitless”.
He claimed that the plot to oust Oshiomhole was being promoted by Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo and a few others.
“It’s local politics within his state that snowballed into this mess we found ourselves. If we say that local politics should determine his fate, it is totally wrong.
“But if it is because of his failure to enforce discipline and stop violation of our party’s constitution, that is a different ball game.
“More than half of our 20 governors and majority of our members at the National Assembly are supporting Oshiomhole. There are a few governors that think they are beyond everybody and they are capable of removing him. We will see how it would go,” the NEC member said. Oshiomhole is gone – Obaseki camp
For the Obaseki camp, the battle has been won and lost. They claimed that only five governors are with Oshiomhole.
Speaking to one of our correspondents, an influential member of the camp said a network had been activated to recruit members of NEC ahead of the meeting.
Pleading not to be named, he said they had gone far in shopping for Oshiomhole’s replacement.
“Essentially, Oshiomhole is gone, he lost the support of the president following a lot of allegations against him. President Buhari had since asked that we should ensure that everything is done in line with party’s constitution.
“That was why when the court order was secured, security operatives were mobilised to ensure compliance. The swift deployment of security is a signal that he is gone. Remember when he (Oshiomhole) was asked after meeting with the president on Thursday, he said he could not read Mr. President’s body language. If it was a positive one, I trust Osho Baba, he would tell the world,” he said.
The top South-South APC chieftain also told our correspondent that after Oshiomhole’s removal, there are chances that he would be arrested over allegations of corruption.
“Aside destabilising the party, there is a lot of issues of corruption against him. His file will be dusted, it is now a huge burden on us. Strong indications are that he would be arrested,” he said as he listed five bribery allegations against the party chairman.
On the network to harvest NEC members, he said, “Only between five and six governors are with Oshiomhole. We have a powerful network that is harvesting members of NEC for us.”
A ranking lawmaker from the North-East said the removal of Oshiomhole would not augur well for the party. The senator who does not want to be named as well, said the party chairman should be allowed to complete his tenure.
“He should be compelled to constitute all party organs but he should not be removed because doing otherwise would change a lot of things and permutations in the party ahead of 2023,”he said.
Blaming the president for the crisis rocking the party, he said, “The father of our party, President Buhari, should have given direction and intervene before this crisis escalated.”
Reinstate suspended party members—PGF
Meanwhile, the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) in a memo through their DirectorGeneral, Salihu Lukman entitled: “Disciplinary Actions by Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC: Why APC must be Rule-Based”, has called for the reinstatement of all suspended members of the party.
Lukman urged NEC of the party to make APC rule-based with a view to laying a solid foundation for the resolution of all the major leadership problems in the party.
He said, “With the emergency National Executive Council (NEC) of the APC scheduled to hold Tuesday, March 17, 2019, apart from the issue of appointing an Acting National Chairman, the resolution of cases of so-called suspension of members of the National Working Committee (NWC) would have to be addressed.
“This is very important given that part of what the emergency NEC meeting would be required to achieve is to lay a solid foundation for the resolution of all the major leadership problems facing the party. That would mean that the NEC would have to review all cases affecting all leaders of the party, especially members of the NWC and as much as possible ensure they are settled.
“This is also necessary because after the meeting, it will be the NWC that would be saddled with the responsibility of providing the leadership to resolve all other leadership problems. Therefore, charity must begin at home, or as they say in law, he who comes to equity must come with clean hands,” he said.
The PGF DG said, “In every respect, Comrade Oshiomhole’s case is similar to that of Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir. Since November 2, 2019, the ward executive of Ward 10, Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State announced the suspension of Comrade Oshiomhole, interestingly for alleged anti-party activities similar to the charges against Alhaji Abdulkadir.
“The decision was transmitted to the NWC and instead of applying the provisions of Article 21(B) (ii) of the APC constitution to set up a fact-finding committee, or even endorse the suspension given the precedence they had set in the case of Alhaji Abdulkadir, the NWC rejected the decision of the ward executive to suspend Comrade Oshiomhole.”
What APC constitution says about NEC
According to Article 12.3 of the constitution, the NEC members include the president, vice president, senate president, deputy senate president, speaker, deputy speaker, governors, principal officers of the National Assembly, two serving senators from each geo-political zone, three members of the House of Representatives from each geo-political zone, party leaders, among others.
The NEC exercises control and takes disciplinary actions on all organs, officers and members of the party.