APC Crisis: Convene NEC Or Face Legal Action, Vice Chair Tells Adamu

The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC), took a turn for the worse as national vice chairman (North West) of the party, Salihu Lukman,  asked the party’s national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, to convene National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting and present the financial report of the National Working Committee (NWC) within a week or face legal action.

“If by the end of this one-week notice, no action is taken to convene an NEC meeting as the first step to restoring constitutional order in APC, I will not hesitate to take further actions, including approaching our courts to enforce compliance with the provisions of our party’s constitution under your leadership,” Lukman threatened Adamu.

This is contained in an open letter by the NWC member to Adamu titled “Restoring Constitutional Order in APC, Not Negotiable”.

Recalling that he had on April 5 formally written Adamu making the same demand, Lukman said Adamu is mandated to present a financial report on the income and expenditure of the party for last year by the provision of Article 13.4(iv) of the APC constitution.

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He said, “I make this an open letter because it is about campaigning to return the APC to its foundation, which requires that we mobilize all like-minded party leaders and members in this crusade to restore constitutional order in the APC.

“As a person, I have concluded that everything must be done to compel you to respect the constitution of our party and manage its affairs based on the requirements of our constitution and not your personal discretion.”

“Therefore, by this open letter, I am serving you notice of one week from today, Wednesday, April 19, 2023 to take all the appropriate steps required to convene an NEC meeting before May 29, 2023, wherein all the issues bordering on the management of smooth transition between the outgoing government of President Buhari and the incoming government of President Asiwaju Tinubu can be considered.

Lukman stated that two weeks after he had presented his demands, Adamu has refused to acknowledge receipt of his missive or indicated that any of the demands he made are being considered.

He recalled that apart from asking Adamu to submit the audited account of the party for 2022 that was submitted to INEC to the NWC, he also told the national chairman to set up a committee to review the 2023 general election  and investigate cases of anti-party activities by leaders and members of the party.

“Given the shameful outcome of the Osun 2022 Governorship election and the embarrassing outcome of the 2023 general elections in Osun State whereby we lost all the three Senatorial seats, all the House of Representatives seats and all the House of Assembly seats in the state, the National Secretary, Sen. Iyiola Omisore who is the most senior party leader in the state should immediately resign.

“In addition, the NWC should recommend to NEC that a high-powered reconciliation committee should be set up to facilitate the reconciliation of all party leaders in Osun state.

“In order to demonstrate the commitment that we are going to restore constitutional order in the party, actions should commence on all these and NWC should meet within the next two weeks from today, Wednesday, April 5, 2023, to review progress,” he stated.

Lukman noted that though the NWC met on Monday, April 17, 2023, its deliberation was limited to ratifying the party’s governorship candidates for Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo States for onward transmission to the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC.

“With respect to the national budget, the closest we came to was when April 8, 2022, NEC approved the cost for nomination forms for the 2022 elections. No proposed expenditure of any kind was presented to any organ of the party apart from the budget for the June 2022 National Convention, which was presented to the NWC on the eve of the June 2022 National Convention. Similarly, no report has been rendered to any organ including the NWC about any revenue received by the party. It is however speculated in the media that the party was able to generate over N30 billion from sales of nomination forms to aspiring candidates for the 2023 elections. Our state structures and other lower organs, which statutorily are entitled to shares of the party’s revenue are given very negligible amounts without allowing any organ of the party, including the NWC to make input into what was paid to the states.

“Large scale financial expenditure is being undertaken without any organ of the party including the NWC allowed to perform any form of statutory due diligence. The National Secretariat has been undergoing large scale renovation and both the costs and details of the contract is not provided to any organ of the party including the NWC. Without a national budget approved by NEC as required by our constitution, all decisions on financial expenditure are limited to your benevolent disposition.

“Unfortunately, because this is the reality, there are party members who have rendered services during the process of nominating candidates for the 2023 elections that are yet to be paid their entitlements. There is also the decision to refund party members who bought nomination forms to contest for position of party leadership during the March 28, 2022 National Convention that elected us but were asked to stepped down to facilitate our emergence as consensus candidates, but are yet to be refunded”, he added.