The die is cast in the ongoing crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC), as national vice chairman (North West) of the party, Salihu Moh’d Lukman, said yesterday that the Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee of the party lacked the power to expel him.
This is coming a day after the party’s national legal adviser, Ahmad Usman El- Marzuq, wrote to Adamu recommending the expulsion of Lukman for dragging the party’s national chairman and secretary to court.
Lukman had instituted the legal action against the APC, Adamu and Iyiola Omisore, praying the court to compel them to convene a meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) and present a report of all that had transpired in the party, including its finances from 2022 to date.
Responding to the national legal adviser’s call for his sack, Lukman, in a letter addressed to Adamu, which he copied President Muhammadu Buhari, APC governors, president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and others, stated that the NWC had no power to expel him.
Stating that he would not withdraw his case in court even if he were expelled, Lukman said, “There is nowhere in the APC constitution where the NWC is given the power to discipline any member of the party. I have already forwarded the memo to my legal team for further legal action.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the suit in question, which is being alleged to constitute anti-party activity will have to go ahead, especially to correct the erroneous interpretation of the Constitution by the national legal adviser to the effect that “it is not mandatory to convene a meeting of the National Executive Committee every quarter for the purpose of presenting activities of the party to the members of NEC.”
“Nobody, no matter how highly placed in the leadership of the party should be allowed to destroy the APC by blocking our organs, notably National Advisory Council (NAC), National Caucus, and NEC from holding statutory meetings as required by the party’s constitution.”
Lukman said while he looked forward to robust deliberations at the Wednesday’s meeting of NWC, he was hopeful that one of the resolutions of the NWC would be to convene a meeting of the party’s NEC before May 29, 2023 where all the demands he had made, including reports of activity, financial report covering income and expenditure of the party, zoning for National Assembly leadership, review of 2023 elections, and so on could be addressed.
