The political atmosphere within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is rife with tension as fresh concerns mount over the growing lists of court orders, seeking to restrain Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State along with other members from acting or parading themselves as the party’s Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, CECPC, members until the determination of substantive suits before the court.
With its eyes on the fast approaching 2023 general elections, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is currently battling to overturn about a dozen court orders and injunctions that threaten, not only the lifespan of the Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State led Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), but also the legitimacy of all its actions and decisions, even after it might have leave office.
Party leaders and members, according to checks by The Nation, are bothered by pronouncements by some trial judges stopping the scheduled APC party congresses across the country. According to reliable party sources, there are fears within the party that the decision of some party chieftains to seek redress in court in matters that concern the APC may create problem for the party ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Speaking to our correspondent in Lagos on Thursday, a former member of the party’s zonal executive committee said “party leaders and other concerned stakeholders are watching the unfolding recourse to litigations by aggrieved party members with growing concerns. We are worried because we all know what such development, coming in the build up to a general election, can do to the chances of the party before, during and after the polls.”
He also expressed dismay that the growing court orders are coming in spite of threat by the party to expel any member that takes the APC to court. “Last year, in a bid to ensure that we are not caught in a web of restraining court orders like we had in the past, the party’s leadership passed a resolution that members who drag the party to court will be expelled. We’ve had people expelled in Kwara and one or two other states. I am surprised we are seeing all these again,” he lamented.
A member of the party’s legal team in Imo State, while speaking on the development, said while efforts are on to ensure that no legal landmine is left unattended to, the rate at which members now go to court across the country is alarming. “We must not go the way of the confused political parties. APC must not make some of the mistakes that cost us some states in 2019. The opposition knows they cannot win elections, they are waiting for our mistakes,” he warned.
But some chieftains of the party insist the party has left members with no option than to return to the courts. Accusing the current leadership and some state governors of trying to gag members of the party while imposing their will on the party, they warned that more litigation will still befall the APC unless the grievances of the majority party members across the country are addressed genuinely and conclusively.
A chieftain of the party in Bauchi State, Alhaji Sani Sanin Mallam, explaining why he and other aggrieved members of the APC in the state instituted an action against the party to seek redress in court, he said, “It is a matter of honour. With all due respect to our party leaders, the court was set up for people who feel cheated to seek redress. We members of the APC in Bauchi State feel cheated by supporters of the governor.
“The APC constitution says where there is no agreement for consensus members should be allowed to contest for positions in a free and transparent manner. We rejected the consensus arrangement but some people sat down somewhere, wrote out names and announced some persons as ward executives, this is not acceptable. As we speak, our lawyers have gone to court to challenge the action.” He added that in its own interest, the party will have to seek genuine reconciliation.
Credit: The Nation Newspaper
Leave a Reply