… Oshiomhole no longer party National Chairman, says NWC member
… As NWC members engage in shouting match over choice of National Secretary
By Ezeocha Nzeh
The ruling All Progressives Congress) (APC) was yesterday engulfed in a fresh crisis as the meeting of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) ended abruptly in a shouti get match over the party’s choice of National Secretary.
The AUTHORITY gathered that the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole had told the meeting that the party has adopted Waziri Bulama as Acting National Secretary amidst protest from some NWC members who insisted that the Chairman has no constitutional right to choose a candidate for the North East zone of the party.
The North East had in a press briefing on Monday maintained that the zone would meet soon to choose it’s choice for the position, which they noted is micro zoned Bornu and Your email States.
It would be recalled that the office of the National Secretary was declared vacant following the election of the former secretary, Mai Mala Bunmi as executive governor of Yobe state
Rejecting the nomination of Bulgaria, the National Vice Chairman North East, Salihu Mustache, argued that the NWC has no powers to impose a candidate on the party, insisting that it is solely the right of his zone to present it’s preferred candidate for the position.
The argument, which The AUTHORITY gathered was supported by few other NWC members led to the shouting match and disagreement among the members
Briefing the media later, an angry Salihu Mustang, who stormed out of the meeting reminded Oshiomhole that he lacks the powers not only to handpick a candidate for the NWC office, but to continue to sit as the APC National chairman, citing a yet to be vacated court order from Edo state, which has upheld his suspension from the state
He accused Oshiomhole of continuously dropping the name of President Muhammadu Buhari to actualize his illegal decisions the have caused serious problems for the party
“I am here just to give you a brief of what transpired just now, the illegality that just transpired now. This has been prevalent in this party since Adams Oshiomhole took over. There is never a time for official meetings. You are forming electoral committees a night before elections.
“That was the reason why we have all the problems we have during the general elections. The party was moved from the National Secretariat to Aso Drive. This illegality has continue. We have taking this for too long because we have this advice from our elders but the illegality knows no bound. The man will dream of an agenda and come and pass it.
“Yesterday I held my zonal meeting and we agreed on how to go about the position of National Secretary. Behold, today Adams Oshiomhole ordained someone and said he is going to be the National Secretary. I want to tell you this is an illegality because of two things.
“Number one, this party has set precedence, Babachir left, I replaced him from Adamawa State, Lai Mohammed left Bolaji replaced him from Kwara, Bolaji left, Onilu replaced him from Kwara state….
“But this is not to say there is no room for consensus. There is serious discussion going on between Borno and Yobe for them to be able to harmonize and come up with a Secretary. We had a meeting yesterday and agreed that the two states should go and meet. I spoke with Borno Governor this morning that I will be in Borno on Friday and consult with them and proceed to Yobe and by Monday will come up with a name. I am not the type of person that will sit and watch illegality. NEC positions are like Ministerial positions and are shared across the states.
“As we speak, Borno has a NEC position, who is now Acting Auditor who is presently occupying his substantive position as Deputy National Auditor while the only National Working Committee Yobe has is National Secretary. If there is need for them to cede to Borno, there must be consultation. The person who is duly elected at the convention must resign voluntarily and cede his own seat to Yobe so that Yobe will not be annihilated in elected the NEC position.
“That is what I canvassed but the Chairman as usual, wants to perpetuate his illegality, just the way he did in Zamfara, in other States where we lost, he is still trying to go ahead and said he has adopted Bulama as National Secretary which is nullity because it didn’t follow the constitutional procedure. What he told us was that it was the President that mentioned Bulama name, but I know it is not true, the President is not known to do unconstitutional things but he keeps dropping his name each time he wants to do illegality but this time around, we are going to resist it.
On the alleged court order upholding the suspension of Oshiomhole by Edo APC, Mustang said “Secondly, I have seen a subsisting court order somewhere, where is been gotten from the party from Edo, they followed the procedure of suspension from his ward, local government, state and his suspension was announced and court upheld it. As I am standing here I have not seen any court that is vacating that subsisting court order.
So I am not recognizing him as National Chairman, he doesn’t have the right to call for any meeting.
“Finally, the party organs that are allowed to do this kind of assignment are normally Executive organs. Where are the resolutions from all these executive positions that necessitated National Working Committee to take decisions.?
“I will produce the subsisting court order for you for publication and will write to INEC, the DSS, he should not be recognized as the National Chairman any longer.”
However reacting to the alleged court order, the party’s Legal Adviser, Babatunde Ocala, said he was not aware of any court order suspending the National chairman
“There is no document before me as Legal Adviser, suggesting a court order upholding the alleged suspension of the National chairman. I have not seen anything like that. May be it is still on the way. If I see any, I will act accordingly, he said.
