Delta APC Leaders’ Council: Decision To Go On With Ward Congress, “Gamble Taken Too Far”

By Daniel Dafe

Some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) under the aegis of Delta State APC Leaders’ Council, have said that the decision by the party to proceed with the Ward Congresses in Delta State and across the country is a “gamble taken too far”.

A statement signed by Festus Keyamo, Chairman, Leaders’ Council, Dr. Alex Ideh, CO-Chairman of the Leaders’ Council, Olorogun Great Ogboru, Rt. Hon. Victor Ochei , Rt. Hon. Monday Igbuya, Dr. Cairo Ojugbo, Dr. (Mrs.) Marian Ali and three others, recalled how the party in Zamfara State, had all her victories were overturned in one fell swoop, adding that “the Zamfara State episode promises to be a child’s play in terms of the monumental kill-stroke which this decision is positioned to deal to our great party if not reversed.”

They argued that “the recent decision of the Supreme court in the case involving Ondo state between Jegede and Akeredolu has shown that our great party narrowly escaped the judges’ gavel which would have sent our hard-earned victory in Ondo State into the waiting arms of the opposition party, the PDP.”

“The narrow split decision of 4-3 deliberated amongst others on the legality of Gov. Mai Mala Buni as a sitting governor to run the affairs of our great party as Chairman of the caretaker committee. The minority decision contended that our great party ought to have been sent packing from the Ondo state government house on the basis that Gov. Mai Mala Buni being a siting governor and also concurrently serving as Chairman of the APC caretaker committee offends section 183 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and our own Article 17 of the APC Constitution, having signed the nomination with which Gov. Akeredolu was selected as our party’s candidate in Ondo State.

“The said minority decision portrayed that the official actions of Gov. Mai Mala Buni serving as Chairman of the APC Caretaker Committee in respect our great party is a nullity,” saying that “the Council is of the opinion that the saving grace by the technicality-based majority judgment of the Apex court wherein the non-joinder of the said Chairman of the APC caretaker committee to the suit was the basis for our narrow escape should be something with which we should not further gamble.”

The leaders quizzed: “Should we gamble the entire ambition, fortunes and structure of our great party on probabilities”?

Adding: “The resort to reasoning by temporarily suspending these Ward Congresses until a new leadership which comes without any legal liabilities is inaugurated will cost the party nothing and consequently leave same with a clear future not hindered by any pending legal death-blow. Let us eschew ego and personal ambitions and be properly guided on this.”

According to the statement, “the said fatal decision to go ahead with the said Ward Congresses was made without consideration to the fact that same was already procedurally botched in Delta State and many other States as well, where pockets of court litigation have already been set in motion.”

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“In particular regard to our dear Delta State, the events have been particularly an embarrassment. Thousands of party faithful made payments worth millions of naira to the provided Party accounts within the timetable stipulated in the Guidelines, but were not issued with forms. This is coming in the light of revelations given by the Party agents sent for the exercise, wherein the said forms were hijacked by fellows who are loyal to a man that has done nothing more than to cause rancor within the party ranks due to his personal interests.

“However, the said forms which were hijacked were subsequently distributed to the un-grounded loyalist of this stakeholder even though no payments were made to the bank. The said hijacked forms as at today the 31st day of July 2021, have not been submitted to the party. The question that comes to mind has to do with the essence of the unnecessary hijack of same.

Furthermore, they vowed that the duty to set things right now falls on them, adding that they are determined to do it for the sake of posterity.