Tenure Elongation: APC says members who dragged party to court are automatically expelled
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that all members of the party who took the party to court over the extension of tenure of its leadership at various levels have been expelled from the party.
Addressing newsmen in Enugu, the Secretary, Forum of States Chairmen of the ruling APC, Dr. Ben Nwoye, said that that was in line with the provisions of the party’s Constitution.
Nwoye who is also the APC Chairman in Enugu State, said that the party is surprised to hear that some of its forum members went to court after it had accepted extension of tenures for the party executive nationwide.
He said: “We (APC states Chairmen) agreed on tenure extensions because this is election year and that it will harm the party if you go into extensive convention, disclosing that they had advocated two years, but the NEC pegged it at one year, which was unanimously agreed by majority of members.
According to him, “the 33 out of 37 Chairmen agreed on the extension because we are all aware of different crises in the country and we did not want to compound the crises, and so we passed vote of confidence on President Buhari and on Tinubu’s reconciliation committee.
“Only four voted against the decision, but that could not override the majority votes. They did not petition to the party’s NEC nor the Tinubu committee and they now went to court.”
He pointed out that those who dragged the party to court over the issue also failed to explore all the available internal remedy options, including going to the Senator Tinubu’s led reconciliation committee.
“However, article 21 (a) of our party Constitution recommends automatic expulsion for members that take the party to court without exhausting all available internal settlement measures.
“The provision is self executory and does not need a committee to pronounce the expulsion on them. But once they withdraw the action, they automatically regain their memberships.”
He alleged that the erring members were being used by the emerging third force and the Peoples Democratic party (PDP), to destabilise the ruling APC.
Nwoye, stressed that the tenure elongation is aimed at stabilising the nation’s democracy, adding that “it is also for the interest of our party.”
He insisted that since the party’s NEC remains the highest decision making body, it means therefore, that members who went to court are not conversant with the APC constitution.
