Ahead of the Tuesday, March 17, 2020 purported National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Lukman has insisted that the highest decision making body of the party has to appoint an Acting Chairman, following the recent Court ruling that suspended Adams Oshiomhole.
Lukman said, apart from the issue of appointing Acting National Chairman, the resolution of cases of so-called suspension of members of the National Working Committee (NWC) would have to be addressed.
He noted that this is very important given that part of what the emergency NEC meeting would be required to achieve is to lay solid foundation for the resolution of all the major leadership problems facing the party.
According to him, that will mean that the NEC will 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.
Lukman who gave these indications in a statement in Abuja said, there are three cases of suspension in the party involving Oshiomhole, APC National Chairman, Lawal Shuaibu, APC Deputy National Chairman (North) and Inuwa Abdulkadir, APC National Vice Chairman (North West).
He explained that the cases of Shuaibu and Abdulkadir have different dimensions with that of Oshiomhole as Abdulkadir was alleged to have been suspended by his Magajin Gari “A” Ward, Sokoto North Local Government of Sokoto on allegations of some anti-party activities during the 2019 Governorship election in Sokoto State, which the NWC endorsed.
“In the case of Sen. Shuaibu, it will be recalled that in May 2019, he (Sen. Shuaibu) wrote a letter to Comrade Oshiomhole asking him to resign due to alleged incompetence. The NWC was then reported to have set a five-man Disciplinary Committee led by Otunba Niyi Adebayo, then Deputy National Chairman (South) to investigate allegations against Sen. Shuaibu. The NWC was said to have suspended Sen. Shuaibu on the purported recommendation of Otunba Adebayo Disciplinary Committee”, the PGF Boss noted.
While questioning the action of the Oshiomhole led NWC, Lukman said: “Does the NWC has the power under the APC constitution to suspend any of its serving officers such as Sen. Shuaibu who is the Deputy National Chairman (North)? Without going into the details of the allegations against either Sen. Shuaibu or Alh. Abdulkadir, what is the procedure for discipline as provided in the APC constitution?
“Following reports of the decision of the Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC to suspend His Excellency Rotimi Akeredolu SAN, Governor of Ondo State, on April 21, 2019, I sent a Memo to Comrade Oshiomhole, partly with the objective of raising concerns about the need to urgently take necessary steps to ensure compliance with provisions of APC Constitution on matters of disciplinary actions against all erring party leaders, including Governors and all other elected representatives.
“While recognising that there may have been reasons to consider necessary disciplinary actions arising from all the problems around the 2019 elections, Article 21 of the constitution of our party, which makes provision for Discipline of Party Members gives the power to the “respective Executive Committee of the Party at all levels.” Nowhere in the constitution, the NWC was given such power.
“Secondly, Article 21(B)(i) specifically stipulated that “A complaint by any Member of the party against a public office holder, elected or appointed, or another member or against a Party organ or officer of the party shall be submitted to the Executive Committee of that Party at all levels concerned which shall NOT LATER THAN 7 days of the receipt of the complaint, appoint a fact-finding or Disciplinary Committee to examine the matter.
“Article 21(B)(ii) went further to provide that “The Executive Committee concerned shall not debate or discuss the complaint or allegation before sending it to the Disciplinary Committee or fact-finding Committee which shall hear, determine and cause its decision to be transmitted to the relevant Executive Committees of the Party concerned.
“The third issue is that Article 13.4(i-xvii) provides for the powers of the NWC. Nowhere in those provisions were disciplinary responsibility given to the NWC. The reality is that all decisions about suspending Sen. Shuaibu and the three Governors were taken by the NWC. In the case of Alh. Abdulkadir, it was taken by his ward and transmitted to the NWC. Upon receipt of that decision, the NWC was expected to invite the NEC to set up the fact-finding committee”.
On Oshiomhole suspension, Lukman stated that, “to worsen the matter, Comrade Oshiomhole himself kept making the argument that he is not an officer of his ward. Is Alh. Abdulkadir an officer of his ward? Comrade Oshiomhole argued that he was elected by over 7,000 delegates at a National Convention as such only the National Convention can remove him. Who elected Alh. Abdulkadir? Was it his ward?
“Under no circumstance should we allow double standards in the application of disciplinary proceedings. Therefore, just like in the case of Alh. Abdulkadir, the NEC need to also recall the decision of Ward 10, Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State regarding the suspension of Comrade Oshiomhole and proceed to appoint a fact-finding committee in line with provisions of Article 21(B)(ii) of the APC constitution.
“There are other many cases of suspension by either the NWC or other state organs of the party. The NEC would need to recall all these so-called suspensions and decisively treat in line with provisions of relevant sections of the APC constitution. It is important that the NEC take steps to ensure that we are able shift our politics to a rule-based conduct and not impulsive and opinionated driven by the ego of our NWC leaders. Anything short of this will just amount to waste of time.
“The recommendation therefore is that all disciplinary decisions initiated and executed by the NWC as was the case with Sen. Shuaibu and the three Governors should be declared a nullity. Although, the NWC has announced the withdrawal of the suspension against the three Governors, it is important that the NEC is able to affirm the provisions of the APC constitution with respect to the powers of NWC on matters of disciplinary hearings”.
