BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN), has advised the ruling All Progressives Congress to stop forthwith all the Ward Congresses billed for Saturday the 31st day of this month across 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Speaking after the party’s slim victory at the Supreme Court on Wednesday in the Ondo state governorship election, Keyamo hinted that the Supreme Court ruling in the case has weaponised all those that would be aggrieved by the Party’s Congresses to proceed to Court to challenge the competence of the governor Buni-led CECPC to organise the Congresses and National Convention which will lead to the subsequent destructions of the party structure from bottom to top by the judiciary.
The APC stalwart said they were lucky the Supreme Court gave them a great and useful hint to save their party even before the beginning of their Congresses, adding that they cannot afford to gamble with this delicate issue as the time to act was now.
“The planned Congresses across the country slated for this weekend must immediately be suspended because it will be exercise in futility as analysed earlier. The competence of Gov. Mai Mala Buni to organise the Congresses has been called to question by the Supreme Court.”
Keyamo advised the Party NEC to urgently meet and consider and reconstitute the CECPC to exclude not only the governor but everyone holding any executive position in any government establishment as stipulated in Article 17 of the APC Constitution.
The APC chieftain also noted that the Party National Chairman or two-thirds of members of NEC can summon a NEC meeting and added that since the party cannot vouch for the legality of any NEC meeting summoned by Buni now, the safest option was to get two-thirds of NEC membership to sign an invitation to summon a NEC meeting where the CECPC would be reconstituted and the Party would be safe.
He further noted that in the alternative, the Board of Trustees of the Party which includes the President could be activated to organise a National Convention in line with Article 13 of APC Constitution where it is given such powers.
, “Those powers can be delegated at a meeting to a Committee in line with the APC Constitution which will run the Party and plan the Convention, the new EXCO can then plan for Congresses.”
He expressed fears that to ignore the advice and do otherwise would be tantamount to playing with fire and the opposition would simply wait till the Party’s Presidential Primaries in 2023 to disqualify their candidate and destroy the Party.
Meanwhile, the Party has said there was no cause for alarm as Gov. Buni can step aside while a non governor takes over the affairs of CECPC or alternatively, the past NWC under Etta Hilliard will be restored to supervise the rest of the processes.
APC had on Wednesday inaugurated the Ward Congresses Committees for all the states of the nation and Abuja to conduct congresses for the Wards Executives and delegates.
