Sources Say APC Legal Team Currently Shopping for Judges to Vacate Court Order Stopping Convention
- There are fears that the All Progressives Congress national convention scheduled for Saturday, March 26 may not hold
- This is as a Bwari division of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory had restrained the ruling party from holding its convention
- The court ruled that the APC should hold on until a substantive suit has been heard and determined
FCT, Abuja - The legal committee of the All Progressive Congress (APC) caretaker committee is reportedly shopping for judges to vacate a court order stopping its elective national convention that it had scheduled for Saturday, March 26, a source told Sahara Reporters.
It was gathered that a Bwari division of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in suit number FCT/HC/CV/2958/2021 had restrained the ruling party from holding its convention until a substantive suit has been heard and determined.
Source: Twitter
The suit, filed by one Salisu Umoru at the court had the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Mai Mala Buni, governor of Yobe state as respondents.
The court order reads:
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“That the 1st Defendant/Respondent can only conduct its national convention after the hearing and determination of the substantive suit pending before this honourable court.
“That in the interest of justice accelerated hearing of the substantive suit is hereby ordered.
“That this matter is hereby adjourned to the 10th day of January 2022 for hearing of the substantive suit at High Court No. 15, Kubwa, FCT-Abuja.”
An APC chieftain said the court order has hobbled the party as the court already fixed Wednesday, March 30, 2022, as the next adjourned date.
Sahara Reporters quoted him as saying:
“That means the party won’t be able to hold its convention on March 26, 2021, until another court overrule the earlier order.
“With INEC having published an elections timetable, the APC is now under pressure to meet stipulated timelines failing which it may not be able to field candidates in the 2023 general elections.
“It’s so sad that this is happening at this time, the party is in serious crisis and controversies surrounding its national convention.
“Some high-ranking party leaders first clashed over the date for the convention, after that was settled, another crisis began over the controversial endorsement of some candidates by President Muhammadu Buhari at the behest of some northern state governors.”
“The legal sub-committee of APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) is now frantically shopping for corrupt judges who will hide behind legal technicalities to vacate the subsisting court order that has barred the party from holding its convention.
“It is a serious matter because our party leaders are now seeing that the party is inching towards the 2019 Rivers and Zamfara states scenario where candidates fielded by the party were deemed ineligible. So, as things stand, the team will do all that is necessary to avert that situation.
“Conservatively, they have voted billions of naira for that aspect. They have strategized to work with more than one judge to increase the success rate of this intervention.”
APC members to welcome Mai Mala Buni after medical trip
Meanwhile, barring any last-minute changes, members of the APC are expected to welcome Governor Mai Mala Buni back to the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Monday, March 14.
The coordinator of a group planning a welcome back party for Governor Buni, said the recent hiccups in the party by some elements were targeted at eliminating the Yobe state chief executive while on his hospital bed.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, March 10, the convener, Hon. Tope Musbau, said some elements resorted to blackmail and campaign of calumny to paint the governor in bad light before President Muhammadu Buhari when their initial plot failed.
Buhari cannot sack Buni As APC national caretaker chairman, says party chieftain
Recall that Ben Abdul, a constitutional and international analyst and chieftain of the APC, recently declared that President Buhari cannot sack Governor Buni as the national caretaker chairman of the ruling party.
Abdul made this known in a statement sent to journalists on Monday, March 7 while reacting to the lead story in a major national newspaper that President Buhari had sacked Buni.
He said the only organ of the party that can remove Buni as the chairman of the party is the NEC which is the highest decision-making organ of the party.
Source: Legit.ng
