APC leadership crisis: ‘I will not appear before you’

 

The deputy national chairman, north, of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Sen. Lawal Shuaibu, has rejected invitation by a disciplinary committee set up by the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) to defend sundry allegations he made against it.

Shuaibu had called for the resignation of the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for mismanaging the fortune of the party in the events leading up to the 2019 general elections.

He accused Oshiomhole of sitting in judgment in his own case and the NWC of usurping the role of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

In a letter dated June 7, 2019 and addressed to the Deputy National Chairman, South, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, who also chairs the adhoc disciplinary committee, Shuaibu said it would amount to an illegality on his part to appear before an illegal contraption.

“Let me state that with due respect to the National Working Committee, an important organ of my Party, I will not appear before your committee as it is illegal and I am too informed to get involved in illegalities. If you want to punish me for saying what I still believe is true, then you have to take this matter to where you are avoiding, the National Executive Committee”, Shuaibu stated.

He also accused the National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of sitting in judgment in his own case, faulting the decision of the chairman to get the NWC to pass a vote of confidence on him and then personally setting up the disciplinary committee.

“I don’t know from where the National Working Committee derived the power of discipline. The APC Constitution in Article 21 states that such power shall only be exercised by the Party through the respective Executive Committee of the Party at all levels.

“I am not a lawyer, but I have been in the political party system for about a decade now to be able to know that every decision of the party shall be in line with what its constitution stipulates. When I served as a National Secretary, my own National Chairman would insist that I worked with the National Legal Adviser for advice on every issue before any decision was arrived at,” Shuaibu recalled.

He said, assuming, without conceding, that the NWC even had such powers, “how can the Chairman preside over a meeting in which discussions that border on allegations against him are discussed? Let me repeat again as in my letter to the Chairman, you cannot be a judge in your own case! And to even say he was seated there to accept a vote of confidence as well as preside over setting up a committee to punish the member that accused him”, he added. (RS with VANGUARD report)