Two Presidential Aides Question Legality of Buni’s Leadership, Want APC Congresses Suspended

Deji Elumoye and Udora Orizu in Abuja

Two Presidential aides and chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Babafemi Ojudu and Ita Enang, have appealed to the leadership of the APC urging it to suspend the forth-coming congresses and retreat to avert possible legal storms which may hurt the party’s chances in the 2023 general election.

Ojudu, who is the Special Adviser to the President on political matters in the office of the Vice President and Ita Enang, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, in a letter jointly signed on Thursday, also questioned the legality of Yobe State Governor, Mala Buni, serving as interim chairman of the APC.

The presidential aides’ reaction came on the heels of Supreme Court judgement on Ondo election and the Minister of state for labour and employment, Festus Keyamo’s assertion of imminent legal implication of Buni-led leadership on the party if aggrieved members choose to seek redress in court.

According to the duo who are former Senators, legality of the Buni-led Catetaker and Extraordinary Convention Committee should be established before it goes ahead to avoid more damages.

They said the apex court’s judgement in favour of the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, is a narrow victory for the party that had again brought to the fore subdued concerns and agitations of many members of the party.

The two-page letter read in part: “It has long been in contention whether unelected officers of a political party can exercise the powers of party vested in the Chairman and officers of the Party who ought, by Party’s Constitution to be elected at duly convened convention of the Party at the National level and congresses at State and other levels. A cursory reading of the Minority judgment, we submit, appears to have swept the carpet of legality off the CECPC rendering it illegal, null, void and of no legal capacity to undertake any action on behalf and in the name of the Party. It has also brought to question the legality of ALL the actions taken by him since inception.

“Accordingly, in view of the impending Ward, Local Government, States and Zonal Congresses and indeed the National Convention (which the CECPC was primarily set up to do), it is our view:
That the Ward and other Congresses scheduled for July 31, 2021 be paused, suspended and put on hold pending the determination of the legal Status of the CECPC to undertake all the activities it so far has, and indeed jurisdiction to conduct the congresses and convention.”

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