APC crisis: Giadom holds the ace as Buhari, govs to attend NEC meeting

…President blackmailed, wrongly advised, says NWC

…Progressives Govs Forum chief backs NEC as Eta alleges his life under threat

…Tinubu says NEC meeting not properly convened, defends Oshiomhole

Deputy National Secretary and factional acting National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Victor Giadom, seems to be having upper hand in the current leadership crisis rocking the National Working Committee as President Muhammadu Buhari, governors elected on the platform of the party and legislators are set to attend today’s emergency virtual meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC).

Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to the President, Mallam Garba Shehu, in a chat with State House Correspondents on Wednesday, confirmed that President Buhari will attend the meeting.

Shehu said: “The President has received very convincing advice on the position of the law as far as the situation in the party is concerned and has determined that the law is on the side of Victor Giadom as Acting National Chairman.

“Because he will always act in accordance with the law, the President will be attending the virtual meeting Giadom called for tomorrow (today) afternoon.

“We urge the media to stop promoting manufactured controversies and to not give any further room for mischievous interpretations of the law on this matter.

“In addition to the President, the Giadom meeting will, hopefully, be attended by our Governors and the leaders of the National Assembly”.

Recall that Giadom announced the convocation of the meeting on Tuesday but was declared illegal by the National Vice Chairman (South South), Hilliard Eta, who is holding brief for Senator Abiola Ajimobi as acting national chairman.

Dismissing such a meeting as a ruse and illegal, Eta said that Giadom has no locus standi to convene NEC meeting.

According to him, Giadom as at Tuesday afternoon ceased to be a member of APC as a court of competent jurisdiction in Port Harcourt nullified his membership.

Eta also argued that an emergency meeting cannot be convened without following the party constitution requirement that a seven day notice of meeting be given those expected in attendance.

“I sit here on behalf of Distinguished Senator Abiola Ajimobi as the acting Chairman of this party. If Victor Giadom is arranging a NEC, I believe that it is your responsibility as a member of the fourth estate of the realm to investigate his locus to find out whether he has the legal, the constitutional backing to be able to call a NEC meeting.

“As we speak, the membership of Chief Victor Giadom has been suspended by a competent court of jurisdiction in Port Harcourt. Not only is he not a member of the NWC from today, his membership of the APC has been suspended. So, when you call him factional acting Chairman, we wonder why.

“Article 25B (i and ii) of the APC Constitution (2014 as amended) states: “The National Executive Committee shall meet every quarter and or at any time decided by the National Chairman or at the request made in writing by at least two-thirds of the members of the National Executive Committee provided that not less than fourteen days’ notice is given for the meeting to be summoned.

“Without prejudice to Article 25(B)(i) of this Constitution, the National Working Committee may summon an emergency National Executive Committee meeting at any time, provided that at least seven days’ notice of the meeting shall be given to all those entitled to attend”, Eta said.

Reacting specifically to the news of today’s NEC meeting, the Hilliard Eta – led NWC said President Buhari might have been blackmailed or wrongly informed to have accepted to attend the meeting convened by Victor Giadom.

In a statement late Wednesday night, the NWC said: “We wish to unequivocally state that members of the National Working Committee (NWC) believe that the President was offered wrong advice or blackmailed into lending his weighty office to the illegality of the National Executive Committee meeting purportedly convened by one Victor Giadom on 25th June, 2020.

“We hereby respectfully implore Mr. President to kindly avail himself with facts of the matter regarding the impasse presently experienced by the party so as to guide him in his assessment of the matter because we are sure that the President if properly advised, would come to the conclusion that the meeting convened by Chief Victor Giadom bothers on illegality and criminality.

“The National Working Committee (NWC) regrets to turn down the invitation to the illegal and unconstitutional National Executive Committee (NEC) convened by Chief Victor Giadom.

“We believe that attending such a meeting will amount to embracing illegalities and turning a blind eye to the infractions on the Constitution of our great party.

Endorsing the NWC position were Hilliard Eta (Ag. National Chairman) and Arc. Waziri Bulama (Ag. National Secretary).

However, the Director General, Progressive Governors Forum, Dr. Salihu Lukman, has backed the call for an emergency meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

This is as he doubted the sincerity of some leaders of the party in getting the party crisis resolved.

He said this in a personal statement titled: APC at Crossroad – Are there going to be Leaders or Blacklegs?

On Wednesday, Lukman challenged the leadership of the APC to take decisive steps to tame the dragging crisis by convening a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.

He called for some drastic steps to restore some order and sanity in APC, stressing that it is either the confusion is allowed to continue and eventual end with the demise of the party, or the leaders find a way to save the party.

Insisting that convocation of NEC meeting is the immediate way out of the present crisis, Lukman said “with the NEC meeting scheduled to hold in less than 48 hours, if it is reflective of rebellion, both the Newspaper, the television station owned by the leader and all his support base may be activated to attempt to block the NEC meeting, including boycotting the NEC.

“How could such a strategy help the leader? Without any debate, this is one leader that certainly enjoys high measure of respect across the party and is perhaps a leading contender to succeed President Buhari.

‘If such a leader works for or tolerated his media companies and supporters to inadvertently work for the demise of the party, how does that serve him? Could it be that he has decided to work against any possibility of succeeding President Buhari?

“Be that as it may, how will leaders or blacklegs relate with the NEC and the decisions it will take? Will they seek to take advantage of the NEC to reset the process of party building back to the point whereby it becomes possible for meetings of party organs to hold and through those meetings seek to resolve all our internal problems, including reconciling all our leaders and repositioning it for undisputed electoral victories?

“The days ahead will confirm whether we have party leaders or blacklegs. All committed party members and leaders should rally behind President Buhari in support of the scheduled NEC to hold so that we are able to reset the APC back to its 2013 orientation of inclusive and participatory politics.

“To achieve that, the public debate should be about proposals to ensure that the NEC succeed rather than attempting to throw up legal blockades!”

Meanwhile, ahead of today’s planned emergency meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a factional acting National Chairman, Mr. Hilliard Eta, has alleged threat to his life.

Eta in a telephone interview with journalists on Wednesday also alleged that he got information that political thugs are coming from Port Harcourt to set the national secretariat of the party ablaze and implicate the National Working Committee (NWC).

He stated: “We got information that they are going to send thugs from Port Harcourt. They are coming here to burn the Secretariat and make it look like the National Working Committee instigated a fire incident so that the Secretariat will be burnt down and then, they will give the impression that it is the NWC that is burning down the Secretariat because they don’t want Victor Giadom to come in.

“They have two intentions that is number one. Number two is that they are going to make an attempt on my life. I just thought that I should let the press know this.”

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Asked if he has reported the threat to his life to the police, the National Vice Chairman (South-South), said: “I will. I am just moving out of my house, I’m coming to Secretariat, from there, I will report to the police.”

Reacting, another factional acting chairman, Chief Victor Giadom asked Eta to report the alleged threat to the police.

Giadom via a telephone response said: “Ordinarily, I would not have reacted. If he has such information, let him report to the Police.

“The police have the capability to track such persons. Maybe that is his plan because we all know that there is a ban on interstate movement and it is difficult.

“He should report to the police if he has any such information except ofcourse he is the one planning to bring in people from Calabar”.

However, All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has vehemently opposed today’s emergency virtual meeting of the party’s National Executive Coyncil (NEC).

Reacting to the convocation of the NEC meeting at the instance of a factional acting National Chairman, Victor Giadom which was backed by President Muhammadu Buhari, the former Lagos State governor queried Giadom’s eligibility to convene the meeting.

This is as Tinubu defended the suspended party chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who he said does not deserve treatment meted on him considering his numerous sacrifices to sustain the cohesion of the party.

In a statement late on Wednesday, Tinubu who could have been apparently shocked by President Buhari’s backing of today’s NEC meeting said Giadom couldn’t have called the meeting without the backing of powerful individuals in the party.

Tinubu said: “We even had a National Deputy Secretary improperly calling for an NEC meeting on the basis that he believed himself to be the acting National Chairman.

“Clearly, this man would not have summoned the temerity to make such a move had he not been instigated by powerful individuals, whom he thought would reward or, at least, protect him for committing the wrongful act.

“We must rally around President Buhari. Instead of everyone saying they are working for the party and nation but going their separate ways based on their selfish designs, we must help him build a stronger national consensus on policies that will ensure safety and bring greater prosperity.

“Many of us expended sweat, tears, toil and sleepless nights to build this party. Our personal sacrifices were not insignificant. We built this party not simply as a vehicle for personal ambition. We built the party because we saw it as perhaps the only enduring hope to bring progressive governance to this nation.

“Those who now seek to abuse the party by using it as their personal device do it great harm. They should not be allowed to sacrifice this collective enterprise at the altar of their self-aggrandizement.

“To be an APC member means more than merely carrying a membership card. It means to believe in a set of ideals and principles geared to our highest purpose as a party and a nation”.

Stoutly defending Oshiomhole, the National Leader castigated those believed to have instigated the current travail of the former labour leader.

In Oshiomhole’s defence, Tunubu said: “I am still looking for any National or State Chairman of any political party whether ruling or not that has completely solved all the problems in the party. Even if the party is just a week old.

“The Chairman has been a tireless campaigner and mobiliser for the party. He has steered the party through difficult elections. His contributions should not be undervalued now that the bulk of elections are behind us.

“To do so would be an act of ingratitude.

“The [coup] plotters launched their attack solely because they perceive the chairman as an obstacle to their 2023 ambitions.

“In a well-structured society, people come to understand that the time for politics is seasonal; it is periodic. The responsibilities of governance are what are perpetual. Many of our politicians sadly have inverted this reality.