APC on the Verge of Repeating Zamfara, Rivers in Edo

Alex Enumah writes that the numerous litigations over the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, puts the party at risk of a repeat of self-inflicted loss in the impending Edo State governorship election

This may not be the best of times for the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s ruling party at the centre.

With the string of court cases hanging on its corporate existence as a united entity, there are fears that the party may soon implode owing to the number of legal actions by forces contending for its soul across the country. These cases have been instituted by different interests within the party.

In Edo, there is the issue of authentic chairman of the party following the suspension of Mr Anselm Ojezua by the faction loyal to suspended National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. Recently, a court in Port Harcourt ruled that the Rivers State APC faction led by Igo Aguma, an ally of Senator Magnus Abe, who has been engaged long-drawn battle for supremacy with Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi is recognised.

Ojezua was accused of relocating activities of the party to the government house and one Colonel David Imuse (Rtd) was said to have been elected to pilot the affairs of the party in the state in the interim. But the Ojezua factor may have resolved itself as Governor Godwin Obaseki whose fight Ojezua championed has switched political party loyalty to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

Outside the leadership tussle, there is ongoing litigation over the mode of primary election for the selection of the party’s Edo governorship candidate in the September governorship election.

Also it is expected that some disqualified aspirants may proceed to court to challenge their disqualification from participating in the party’s primary slated for June 22.

At the national level there is a current leadership crisis capable of tearing the APC into shreds.

The crisis, assumed a consuming dimension on June 16, following a judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, affirming the suspension order on the party’s National Chairman, Oshiomhole.

As it stands, except the party retraces its steps and urgently too, it may end up suffering the same fate that cost it the governorship and other elective offices in Zamfara and Rivers states in the last general election.

It would be recalled that the party lost out completely in the two states in the 2019 general election.
In Zamfara despite winning the governorship and other national and state legislative positions, the party got a rude shock when the Supreme Court in a judgment disqualified all its candidates in the 2019 general election in Zamfara state on the grounds of failure to conduct a valid primary election to select flag bearers of the party in the 2019 general election.

The Supreme Court citing the same reason denied the APC an opportunity to field candidates for the same election in Rivers State.

However, barely one year after the APC suffered that huge but self inflicted loss in the two states, the party seems bent on another loss owing to the numerous court cases threatening the chances of the party in the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State.

As at today, former governor of Oyo State and Deputy National Chairman (South) Senator Abiola Ajimobi who is on his sick bed, Deputy National Secretary of the APC, Honourable Victor Giadom, Deputy National Chairman (South South) Honourable Hilliard Eta and a contender to the office of Deputy National Chairman (South), Mr. Akinleye Micheal are all laying claiming to the acting chairmanship of the party following the suspension of Oshiomhole.

Oshiomhole was first suspended on November 2, 2019 by officials of his ward, Etsako West Ward 10 over his continued disagreement with the governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki.

The suspension was ratified by the Etsako West Local Government Executive Committee and was subsequently upheld by the State Executive Committee of the party.

He, however, failed to challenge his suspension forcing some members of the party to approach the court early in the year to enforce the suspension.

The plaintiffs in the application filed on January 16, 2020 and argued by their lawyer, Mr. Oluwole Afolabi, urged the court to declare Oshiomhole’s continued stay in office illegal having allegedly been suspended from the APC.

The other plaintiffs are; Honourable Anselm Ojezua, Alhaji Sani Gomna, Mr Oshawo Steven, Mr Fani Wabulari and Evangelist Princewill Ejogharado.

While other respondents alongside Oshiomhole include; the APC, Inspector General of Police (IGP) and State Security Service (SSS).

Arguing the motion with number: M/4292/2020, Afolabi told the court that Oshiomhole has up till now failed to challenge his suspension from the party.

He argued further that Oshiomhole’s rights as a member of the party abated and he could not continue to act as chairman of the party, adding that Oshiomhole could not continue to enjoy benefits from the APC, despite his suspension as a member of the party.

The plaintiffs accordingly prayed the court for an interlocutory order restraining Oshiomhole from parading himself or performing any function as National Chairman of the APC.

They also prayed the court for another interlocutory order restraining the APC from recognizing or continue to recognize Oshiomhole as National Chairman of the APC including giving effect to any of his decisions.

In addition they prayed for another interlocutory order directing the Police and the SSS to deploy their staff to prevent Oshiomhole from continuing to occupy the office of the National Chairman of the APC and from having access to the office.

Delivering ruling in the interlocutory application on March 4, 2020, trial judge, Justice Danlami Senchi, held that the plaintiffs proved that Comrade Oshiomhole was suspended by his ward, Etsako West Ward 10 in Edo.

Justice Senchi added that political parties must be bound by their constitution and having been suspended by his ward, Comrade Oshiomhole should be restrained from functioning as the National Chairman of the party pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

The court also ordered that Mr Oshiomhole should stop parading himself as the Chairman of the party.

The judge also urged the APC to desist from acknowledging him as the chairman of the party.

The court further directed the APC not to grant Oshiomole access to the party Secretariat.

Oshiomhole appealed the ruling of Justice Senchi and was lucky through an interlocutory injunction. On March 16, he got an order of the Court of Appeal halting his suspension. Unfortunately the same appeal court on June 16, three months after affirmed his suspension by the lower court.

The panel led by Justice Eunice Onyemenam in an unanimous judgment held that the trial court was right in asking Oshiomhole to step aside pending the hearing and determination of the suit challenging his continued chairmanship of the APC and dismissed Oshiomhole’s appeal for lacking in merit.

In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Lamido, the three-man panel resolved all four issues raised by Oshiomhole in favour of the respondents.

The court accordingly upheld the decision of the FCT High Court which had in March this year ordered Oshiomhole’s suspension and restrained him from parading himself as the National Chairman of the party.

In less than 24 hours of Oshiomhole’s suspension a leadership crisis that is capable of costing the party another loss in the Edo State governorship poll is already brewing.

This decision of the appellate court has, however, opened another floodgate of litigations in courts across the country over the rightful person to act in Oshiomhole’s stead pending the hearing and determination of the suit challenging his chairmanship of the party.

While acting National Secretary of the party, Mr Victor Giadom supported by the APC National Organising Secretary, Mr Muhammed Ibrahim, is claiming to have the legal backing of the court to act in the absence of Oshiomhole, his claim is being challenged by other members of the party executives.

APC National Publicity Secretary, Mr Lanre Isa-Onilu, had announced Senator Abiola Ajimobi as the Acting National Chairman, being the Deputy National Chairman (South).

According to the party, there is no basis for Giadom to assume acting chairmanship position of the party since there is a National Deputy Chairman in the person of Senator Ajimobi.

But Eta on his part swiftly capitalized on the ailment of Ajimobi to assume acting National Chairmanship position. The Deputy National Chairman from the South-south who had the support of 15 of the 21 National Working Committee (NWC) though admitted Ajimobi ought to occupy the office in the absence of Oshiomhole, however, insisted that following the unavailability of Ajimobi he was the one to occupy the office in the interim.

On his party, Akinleye Micheal argued that the order of the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti division on February 12, 2020 which ordered parties to maintain status subsist and warned that the party would be in breach to appoint Ajimobi as acting National Chairman.

Michael in the main suit before the court is claiming that he and not Ajimobi should fill the vacant position of Deputy National Chairman (South) having come from Ekiti State, the same state with the former Deputy National Chairman, South.

In his bid to make his acting chairmanship legal, Giadom had on June 18, approached the court to renew its order permitting him to act for two weeks pending the hearing and determination of his main suit.

Recall that Justice Samira Bature of an Abuja High Court had on March 16 while ruling on an exparte application brought by National Vice Chairman North East, Comrade Mustapha Salihu permitted Giadom to act as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for two weeks.

The order was however inactive as the Court of Appeal Abuja Division had few hours later set aside the order suspending Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the APC.

But following the June 17 judgment of the Court of Appeal which upheld Oshiomhole’s suspension, he then approached the court for permission to allow him pilot the affairs of the party in the interim.

In the ex parte application dated June 18 and argued by his lawyer, Mr Wole Afolabi, the plaintiff prayed the court to extend its order of March 16 which had granted Giadom permission to act as Acting National Chairman of the APC for a period of two weeks.

Mr. Afolabi had argued that Giadom is the authentic acting National Chairman of the APC, following a ruling of the Federal Capital Teritory High Court in March.

Giadom who is the party’s Deputy National Secretary said he was the highest ranking official from the South-south following the ruling of the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, which upheld Oshiomhole’s suspension and declared all his actions since his suspension, null and void.

After listening to the submissions of Mr Afolabi, Justice Bature granted the application as prayed.

The judge also empowered Comrade Mustapha Salihu, the APC National Vice Chairman (North East) to act as the National Secretary.

Giadom maintained that asking Ajumobi to act as the National Chairman of APC following the suspension from office of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole by the Court of Appeal, was in disobedience to court order.

“We wish to state that the statement must have been issued in complete ignorance of the order of the FCT High Court issued on March 16, 2020, by Honourable Justice Bature in Suit No. FCT/HC/M/6447/2020 to the effect that Chief Victor Giadom is to act as the National Chairman of the party due to the suspension of Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman.

“The order was given the same day that the Court of Appeal earlier gave Oshiomhole a temporary respite by staying the execution of the said order suspending Oshiomhole. Now that the Court of Appeal has affirmed the order of suspension, it is only proper that the Order recognizing Chief Victor Giadom is implemented.

“Consequently, we have written to all law-enforcement agencies to implement the said order and any one who attempts to parade himself/herself other than Chief Victor Giadom as the Acting Chairman of the APC would be facing contempt of court proceedings.

“The said order has now been extended by the court for two weeks”, his lawyer had said.

But the hope of Giadom was however dashed on June 19 by a ruling of a Port Harcourt High Court which restrained him from parading himself as acting National Chairman.

The order made by Justice Florence Fibiresima was in respect of a motion brought by two chieftains of the APC in Rivers State, Mr. Dele Moses and Mr. Azunda Awori.

Part of the reliefs being sought by the plaintiffs include, “A declaration that sequel to the resignation of the 3rd defendant (Hon Victor Giadom) as Deputy National Secretary of the 1st Defendant (APC) in 2018, for the purposes of contesting in the 2019 general election as Deputy Governor of Rivers State, the 3rd defendant is no longer the Deputy National Secretary of the 1st Defendant and is not a member of the National Working Committee ( NWC) of the 1st Defendant having resigned his membership of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the 1st Defendant for purposes of contesting in the 2019 general election as the Deputy Governor of Rivers State.

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/640/2020, the plaintiff contended that Senator Ajimobi lacked the locus standi to pilot the affairs of the party, insisting that he was not validly appointed by the suspended National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole.

According to the plaintiff, Oshiomhole had appointed Ajimobi into office at a time his ward in Edo state had suspended his membership of the party.

He therefore wants the court to declare that in view of the suspension of Oshiomhole on November 2, 2019 and as affirmed by the Court of Appeal in Appeal No: CA/A/188/2020 on June 16, 2020, all the decisions taken by Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the APC (during the subsistence of his suspension) is invalid, null and void and liable to be set aside.

If this request is granted, with the restraining order on Giadom it simply means that the APC will be without a leader recognised by law when it conducts its primary on June 22 to select its candidate for the Edo governorship election.

If that be this case, the party may have just denied itself again the opportunity to field a candidate in another governorship election.

To be sure the APC is not lacking in efforts to resolve warring parties through existing party structures, but the refusal of aggrieved persons to be persuaded remains a big cog in the wheel of peaceful resolution. In the recent selection process of its governorship candidate in Edo State, one of the candidates, Mathew Iduoriuekemwen was disqualified for instituting legal proceedings against the party

At different times, there have been intervention from President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Leader of the APC, Senator Bola Tinubu.
One of such efforts was the establishment of a conflict resolution committee with party’s first national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, as the head. Akande had frowned at the increasing number of court cases being filed by party members that has to do with disputes regarding the leadership of APC.

According to him, “I am a bit taken aback by the Swift resort to the courts by some members, who seek external decisions on what are intrinsically internal matters best determined by deliberative process that is part and parcel of democratically-oriented party politics.”

Akande did not stop there. He said: “I do not know the the motivations behind this litigation conduct. It is not in my nature to ascribe negative or harmful motives to any. Those seeking access to the courts to decide what are basically politic questions, perhaps, think they are doing the right thing. If this is the case, I must state that they are innocently in error. Their actions are harmful to the party in compound ways. First, the subject they bring to court is not amenable to judicial pronouncement. The matter by which court decisions are rendered – one side wins, the other loses – is not the best way to resolve political disputes.”

Following the contention by anti-Oshiomhole forces last March, pressing for a National Executive Committee meeting, Tinubu had labelled the agitators as self-seeking persons who were trying to ruin the government of Buhari. He also chided them for not exhausting all intra party conflict resolution opportunities before seeking redress in court.

QUOTE 1:

Same day the Port Harcourt High Court restrained Giadom from acting as National Chairman, another member of the APC, Mr. Charles Ude, asked a Federal High Court in Abuja, to bar the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)_from recognising both Ajimobi and Eta as Acting National Chairman of the party. In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/640/2020, the plaintiff contended that Senator Ajimobi lacked the locus standi to pilot the affairs of the party, insisting that he was not validly appointed by the suspended National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole

QUOTE 2:

The order which has turned the office of National Chairman to an all comers’ affair with four officials of the APC laying claim to the seat has made the chances of the party winning the September governorship election in Edo very slim.
As it stands, except the party retraces its steps and urgently too, it may end up suffering the same fate that cost it the governorship and other elective offices in Zamfara and Rivers states in the last general election. It would be recalled that the party lost out completely in the two states in the 2019 general election