Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress began its Ward Congresses on Saturday amidst crises, court orders stopping the exercise in some states, and threats of parallel congresses in some.
The crisis rocking the party has built up over recent weeks, but was capped by a recent ruling of the Supreme Court that said the party flouted the country’s Constitution by having a ruling governor, Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State.
According to the seven Justices of the Supreme Court, Buni’s position as an executive state governor and also chairman of APC’s caretaker committee, contradicted Article 17(4) of the APC Constitution and Section 183 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution.
This was one of the decisions of the Supreme Court that came out from its ruling on the election petition against the Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, which was in favour of the governor.
Worried by the torrent of challenges facing the party, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is in faraway London has asked Vice President Osinbajo to step in and hold talks with ministers who are lawyers in the cabinet as the party searches for a way out of the crisis.
The turbulence in the APC has assumed such a large proportion that the congress has been threatened in a number of states, including Kwara, Anambra, Rivers, Imo and Bayelsa.
In Bayelsa, a State High Court late on Friday restrained the APC from conducting Saturday’s ward congresses. Justice Iniekenimi Uzaka gave the order pending the determination of a motion on notice before the court.
APC is fractionalized between supporters of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, and a former Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri.
The two factions had been preparing for the congress separately in Yenagoa, until the court order came.
In neighbouring Rivers State, the story is the same with the APC divided into two groups, one led by Minister of Transport, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, and a former Senator representing Rivers South East, Mr. Magnus Abe.
On Friday, Abe asked his supporters to boycott the congresses, declaring that all efforts to restore peace in the party in Rivers had failed.
The Rotimi Amaechi faction of the APC in the state yesterday accused the faction led by Senator Abe of plotting to stop the congresses of the party in the state through a court order.
Kwara, the home state of the Minister of Information and Culture, is perhaps the hotbed of the crisis, as it has produced two strong factions. As at the close of work on Friday the two factions looked set to hold parallel congresses, not minding the threat of sanction by the Caretaker/Extraordinary National Convention Planning Committee (CECPC). This committee is headed by Buni.
Mohammed’s supporters announced late Friday that they had obtained nomination forms for all its aspirants in the state.
This was disclosed to journalists in Ilorin by the faction’s caretaker legal adviser of the party in the state, Barrister Ladi Mustapha, noting that the faction led by Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa was ready for the congresses as long as every other thing remains constant.
According to him, this faction’s executive of the APC in Kwara had notified relevant agencies as required by the Electoral Act 2006 (As Amended).
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Supreme Court ruling on Jegede Vs. Rotimi Akeredolu Governorship election should be bold enough on the wall of justice that Hon. Bashir Ọmọlaja Bolarinwa’s chairmanship is as solid, in law, as the Rock of Gibraltar,” he said.
In Imo State, a High Court in the Federal Capital Territory on Friday asked the APC to refrain from going ahead with Saturday’s congresses in the state, until a suit filed by Okey Anyikwa, APC Chairman in Ideato South Local Government Area, had been heard.
