Stormy Session Likely as APC NWC Meets Today Amid Leadership Crisis

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The leadership crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may climax today as the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party readies for a likely stormy meeting.

The meeting was summoned following a lawsuit instituted by APC National Vice Chairman, North-west, Dr. Salihu Lukman, against National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore, over their alleged refusal to convene meetings of relevant party organs.

Lukman had given a seven-day ultimatum to Adamu to convene a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC), where Adamu would give the financial account of the party.

But Adamu’s reluctance to hearken to his call to convene the NEC meeting after expiration of the seven days ultimatum forced Lukman to institute a lawsuit against the party chairman last Thursday.

However, the crisis rocking the party assumed another dimension on Sunday, when the National Legal Adviser, Ahmad El-Marzuq, recommended Lukman’s expulsion, in his letter to Adamu.

Reacting to the expulsion threat, Lukman said he hoped the issue would be tabled at the NWC meeting slated for today for deliberation, and that, it was only then that it would become a threat.

In yet another memo, yesterday, addressed to Adamu and copied President Muhammadu Buhari, President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, APC governors, and NWC members, Lukman through his lawyers, Legal Resource Consortium (LRC) expressed the hope that Adamu, members of the NWC and all party leaders would be properly guided by the correct position of the law.

Lukman, in the memo signed by Olawale Fapohunda, warned that under no circumstance should Adamu or the NWC administrative organ of the party act in a manner that suggested they were too powerful to be governed by the party’s constitution.

The memo said, “Under no circumstances should Your Excellency, being the National Chairman, or, indeed, the NWC as the administrative organ of the party, act in a manner that suggests you are ‘too powerful to be governed or controlled by the party’s constitution or guidelines, and in contravention of such control mechanisms,’ which will mean that ‘democracy is thrown overboard by anarchy.’

“Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/573/2023 between Salihu Mohammed Lukman vs All Progressives Congress APC & 3 Ors is instituted primarily to arrest the looming danger of anarchy in the management of our party, which is actively being promoted by the National Legal Adviser for which he has the effrontery to recommend that ‘Senior members of the bar should be engaged to represent and defend the interest of the party.

“Is this really about the interest of the party or some pecuniary interests of those who are opposed to allowing the structures of the party to function as enshrined in the provisions of our party’s constitution? How can meetings of NEC and other organs of the party be said to be against the interest of the party?”

Lukman noted that El-Marzuq and all those involved in the effort to subvert the constitution of the party might wish to convert all the party resources to fund appearances in court to defend the indefensible.

According to him, “Those of us who stand for justice, even as orphans, will always find partners and allies among senior members of the bar who will provide pro-bono services in defence of democracy. I am confident that our founding leaders, led by President Muhammadu Buhari and President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will bring their moral authority to serve as a check to restore constitutional order in the APC.”

El-Marzuq, in an earlier reply to Lukman’s initial memo, said he took serious exception to the words used by Lukman in his letter, when he described his legal opinion as a deliberate attempt to manipulate the NWC into subverting the party’s constitution

As National Legal Adviser, he said it was his duty to provide legal advice to the party that was devoid of sentiment.

He said, “I fail to see where I deliberately misled the NWC into subverting the party’s constitution by simply referring to relevant portions of the said constitution, which are clear and unambiguous, as I have nothing personal against the National Vice Chairman (North-West),” El-Marzuq, a ‘Life Bencher’, claimed.

He said he was ready to address all the issues raised in the memo written by himself at the emergency meeting of the NWC. The meeting was scheduled for today.

He further recommended that senior members of the bar should be engaged to represent and defend the interest of the party.