The embattled National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, met and updated President Muhammadu Buhari on the activities of the party including his suspension and subsequent reinstatement by separate courts in Abuja and Kano.
“I thought that I had a duty to brief Mr. President as the overall leader of our party about this development. Incidentally when I requested for the audience yesterday, I wasn’t sure what has happened today will happen. But I had a duty to inform him about the court order. But happily before coming here, the order from a Federal High Court that has made nonsense of what the FCT court purported to have done has already settled the question,” he said.
Oshiomhole was on Wednesday suspended from office by an FCT High Court presided over by Justice Danlami Senchi. However, a Federal High Court in Kano, presided over by Justice Lewis Allagoa, on Thursday set aside the Wednesday’s interlocutory injunction of Justice Senchi and subsequently voided the suspension of APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. In his ruling, Justice Allagoa ordered the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Service (DSS) to provide security for Oshiomhole to resume in his office.
Oshiomhole, who spoke to State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with the President, expressed optimism that God would see him through the current legal and political upheaval, describing himself as “a child of light who will always defeat darkness. I showed the president the resolutions of my ward even though a ward executive does not have the powers to remove a national chairman, just to say that the document that we have says clearly that my ward passed a vote of confidence on me. How the court can hold vote of confidence and twist it to mean a vote of no confidence, only that judge can explain it to himself.
“But the good news is that this is not a final court nor is it the only court, incidentally it is just the court that didn’t have the jurisdiction even to listen to this matter. And our lawyers so pointed it out but the judge was determined to obliged those who want to destabilize the All Progressive Congress.’’
Oshiomhole, who fingered a serving minister and some governors as being his ordeal in the party, allegedly accused Edo State Governor and some of his supporters of jubilating over the Wednesday’s FCT High Court ruling. “Let me also say that those behind this plot, the hands you saw which includes as you saw yesterday; you saw the Edo State governor and his people jubilating. But that is the irony of life that you will help give birth to a child and the child look for cutlass to want to chop off your neck,” he lamented.
The FCT judge, Danlami Senchi, gave the order following an application of interlocutory injunction seeking an order of the court to suspend Oshiomhole, having been suspended as a member of the APC from his Etsako ward 10 in Edo State. In the application filed on January 16, 2020 by Oluwole Afolabi, as an applicant, and Oshiomhole as the first respondent, while the APC is the second respondent, the applicant contended that Oshiomhole is currently suspended by the party and has not challenged the suspension. The counsel to Oshiomhole and APC is Damian Dodo (SAN).
According to Afolabi, Oshiomhole’s right as an APC member is currently abated, therefore, he cannot continue to act as the chairman of the party. He argued that Oshiomhole could not continue to enjoy benefits from the APC, despite his suspension as a member of the party.
Justice Senchi, in his ruling, held that the first and second respondents wrongfully kept Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the party. The court also ordered that Oshiomhole should stop parading himself as the chairman of the APC. The judge, therefore, urged the APC to desist from acknowledging him as the chairman of the party. The judge ordered the party not to grant Oshiomhole access to the secretariat. Hearing in the substantive matter was adjourned to April 7 and 8.
But the former Edo State governor, who spoke through his aide on media, Mr. Simon Ibegbulem, disclosed that he had already approached an appellate court to void his suspension from the party.
“Our legal department is studying the matter and we have filed for a stay of execution and appealed the ruling. With those processes Oshiomhole remains the national chairman of the party,” he said.
However, APC said it would respect the decision of the court which upheld the suspension of Oshiomhole. Also, Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki expressed satisfaction with the court ruling.
Obaseki, who spoke during a rally in Edo South senatorial district, said “APC is one in Edo State. Court today has finally taken the right decision to suspend Oshiomhole.
“We have victory in the court today. I am not a happy person because we shouldn’t have gone to this extent. APC is one and there is no division in the party. Even though we are celebrating today, for me, it is with mixed feelings. I believe we have all learned an additional lesson. Today is the beginning of a new era of peace for our party, particularly for the party in Edo State,” the governor said.
The state chairman of APC, Anselm Ojezua, said that the order of court upholding the suspension of Oshiomhole would provide room for genuine reconciliation in the party. The APC, however, quickly moved to avert a power vacuum that the court ruling would have created, announcing the approval of nominations into vacant positions in the National Working Committee (NWC).
According to a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, the nominations approved are Deputy National Chairman (South), Senator Abiola Ajimobi; National Secretary, Waziri Bulama; and National Auditor, Paul Chukwuma. The officers, he said, would hold their positions in acting capacity pending confirmation by the National Executive Committee (NEC).
With the development, Ajimobi, who was the immediate past governor of Oyo State, would step into Oshiomhole’s shoes as acting national chairman, being the most senior officer of the party.He would mount the saddle based on Article 14.2 (iii) of APC constitution, which states that: “Deputy National Chairman, North/South shall act as the National Chairman in the absence of the National Chairman.”
