October 08, (THEWILL) – Some party leaders of the Delta State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have rejected the Ward and local government congresses conducted in the State.
The leaders also call on the Mai Mala Buni led Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the party to organise fresh and all-inclusive Congresses in the State.
The decision was part of the outcome of an expanded meeting of the Leaders’ Council of the State Chapter of the Party and majority members of the State Working Committee, held on Wednesday, 6th Oct., 2021.
The meeting which discussed various issues affecting the party in the State, in a communique signed by 19 leaders of the party lamented the injustice against committed party members in the state by depriving them from the said congresses.
The communique reads: “The Delta State APC Leaders’ Council is an initiative of the Chief John Oyegun Committee which the Chairman of the Congress and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), H.E. Gov. Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State set up to reconcile different tendencies within the Party in the South-South Zone.”
“The subsequent and repeated endorsement of this initiative by the CECPC Chairman when we met him at his residence in Abuja on two occasions, encouraged and informed the concerted and consensual steps taken by the Council to restore peace, unity, solidarity and progress to our Party in Delta State.
“These commitments were based on the directives and dispositions of the Chairman of the CECPC. We note however that whilst members of the Council have kept faith with the directives of the CECPC as espoused by the Report of the John Oyegun Committee, by building consensus and unity within the Party, the same CECPC has turned round to support the actions of one person who is bent on foisting his personal agenda on the entire State, through the Party’s congresses.
“We state here and now that Congresses are not an end in themselves, but an avenue to engender cohesion, inclusiveness and growth in the Party, through the popular election of Party leaders, or the consensual production of its functionaries.
“The avoidable reverse which the Party recently suffered at the Isoko South State Assembly Constituency by-election (where the party split to two due to the arrogance and impunity of the agent of the CECPC in our State) underscores how this latest farce imposed by the CECPC in Delta State can wrought failure on the party.”
According to a communique, the meeting resolved that “The purported Ward Congress stand was rejected.”
It further stated, that “This Council worked for an all inclusive Congress and advised the CECPC accordingly. But the CECPC chose to work with and foist the list of one person on the State. Eight Thousand, six hundred (8,600) of our members across the State paid for the forms and were issued with receipts within time but DELIBERATELY denied forms.
“Having wilfully deprived and excluded these committed Party faithfuls from the Congresses and having exhausted internal party machinery for redress, we note that they had no option but to proceed to Court.
“We acknowledge and salute their patience, courage, and steadfastness and state that in the face of brazen provocation and in line with the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is within their Constitutional rights to seek justice through constitutional means.
“It is the height of provocation, injustice and unbridled arrogance for a party to refuse to follow its own rules, take monies from ordinary Nigerians who are committed party members and refuse to even sell forms to them and then turn around to warn them not to exercise their constitutional rights. That is tantamount to playing God.
“The so-called party functionaries thrown up from that charade, are not APC officials but the handpicked agents of one. We call on all committed and faithful party members to reject them.”
The meeting also rejected the appeal committee. “We also reject the so-called Appeal Committee constituted at the behest of the unpopular agent of the CECPC in the State, the agent- provocateur.
“This is exemplified by the Chair of the Panel, who is his personal attorney, and is also engaged as the opposing counsel in the same suit that the aggrieved persons filed in court. In other words, this individual is the Arbiter outside the court in respect of a complaint by aggrieved persons and then the opposite counsel in court in respect of the same complaint and the same persons! This is an unwholesome and highly unprofessional conduct and may be taken up in due course.
“However, this is the kind of outrageous injustice foisted on the party faithfuls in Delta State. It is an attempt by one person to appropriate an entire party in the State with the active connivance of the CECPC. It will not stand.
“It should be recalled that a Court of competent jurisdiction suspended not only the so-called Ward Congress but also certain State Officers of the Party, including the suspended Acting State Chairman. The Ward Congress, being invalid and illegitimate, could not be the basis of the alleged LGA Congress or any other Congress. Something cannot be built on nothing. Thus, the purported Ward and LGA Congresses are exercises in futility that cannot stand.
“Zoning has become an acceptable political imperative buoyed by the letters of Nigeria’s Constitution and the spirit of our Party’s Constitution.
“However, zoning must be based on a clear understanding of the polity and firm endorsement of the relevant party leadership. It is the height of arbitrariness and didactic arrogance for one person, in connivance with the suspended Acting State Party Chairman, to
the exclusion of the Executives and leaders of the Party, to claim to have zoned the Party positions for the whole State, ahead of the State Congress.
“Expectedly, this was outrightly and overwhelmingly rejected. To carry the insult further, the same person, in acknowledgement of the pervasive rejection of his vexatious proposal, subsequently claimed to have personally set up a committee to review his own obnoxious proposal. This clique of personal loyalists and errand boys he calls a Review Committee is only meant to perfect his premeditated agenda of foisting a leadership on the State. We reject all these in their entirety.
“We state and affirm here that there was no acceptable congress in Delta APC. We have previously heard through the grapevine that the entire State structure would be taken by an agent of the CECPC and that we can complain to the CECPC or go to court.
“The reasons for such grandstanding and boastfulness are now clear for all to see. The CECPC may have been misled but we believe that justice will eventually prevail and they cannot befuddle the people of Delta State. Delta State APC is not the personal property of one person, and it will never be. Let all be reminded that the foundation and fulcrum of our Party were laid and built on integrity and progressive politics, epitomised by President Buhari
“The CECPC cannot divorce itself from these tenets of democracy.
“Accordingly, we call on the CECPC to annul whatever he or the CECPC may be regarding as Ward and LGA congresses in Delta State, and organise fresh, all-inclusive Congresses. This is the irreducible minimum for the teeming members of our Party to work with the CECPC to take our Party forward.”
The party leaders also call on all party faithfuls to remain steadfast and patient “in the face of these brazen acts of injustice, provocation and undemocratic practices as we shall work relentlessly to enthrone justice and fairness in DELTA APC.”
The communique was signed by Festus Keyamo, (Chairman, Leaders’ Council and Hon. Minister), Dr. Alex Ideh (Co-Chairman, Delta APC Leaders’ Council), Rt. Hon. Cairo Ojougboh (Secretary, Delta APC Leaders’ Council and former ED, NDDC), Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru (2019 APC Governorship Candidate, Delta State), Rt. Hon. Victor Ochei (Former Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly and ED, NIMASA), Dr. Mrs Mariam Ali (Foremost Female Leader of the party in Delta State and one-time Senatorial Candidate) and Rt. Hon. Chief Monday Ovwigho Igbuya (Former Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly)
Others are Chief Sir Richard Odibo (Federal Commissioner, National Population Commission), AVM (Rtd) Terry Okorodudu (Leader Delta South APC), Dr. Eugene Okolocha (Leader APC Ndokwa Nation), Hon. Joel-Onowakpo Thomas (Leader APC Isoko Nation, former Isoko House of Reps Candidate, former Council Chairman, Isoko South LGA and former Chairman Delta State Board of Internal Revenue), Elvis O. Ayomanor (Ag) State Chairman, Delta APC Caretaker Committee; Comr. Chidi Okoji (State Secretary, Delta APC Caretaker Committee); Mr. Tosan Awani (State Vice Chairman, Delta South, Delta APC Caretaker Committee); Sir. A. S. Mene (State Organising Secretary, Delta APC Caretaker Committee); Mr. Felix O. Okpako (State Publicity Secretary, Delta APC Caretaker Committee); Dr. Mrs. Janet Oyubu (State Women Leader, Delta APC Caretaker Committee); Comr. Christopher Agali (State Youth Leader, Delta APC Caretaker Committee); and Hon. Denbo Denbofa Oweikpodor (Special Leader, Delta APC Caretaker Committee).
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