A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has said that political desperados causing trouble in the party can now rest following the Supreme Court affirmation of the Mai Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the ruling party.
The erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party, nPDP, said that those working hard to bring back the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee, NWC, should perish the thought.
The party chieftain expressed excitement at the apex court’s ruling, noting that the judgment validates his earlier stand on the controversy generated over the legality or otherwise of the Buni-led team.
Recall that APC governors had also declared that the apex court ruling on the Ondo State governorship election validated the Buni-led CECPC.
Atiku Bagudu, Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, PGF, pointed out that a lot of the analyses and interpretations of the court’s ruling were made out of mischief by some members of the party.
The Governor’s position came following the opinion of lawyers who are members of the APC, including the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, who had warned against the wrong interpretation of the judgment.
And Eze, in a statement on Tuesday, after the apex court made public details of the judgement, said those controverting and subjecting the Buni-led committee to quibbles are merely conscripted to execute a devious stratagem in pursuit of some selfish, private vendettas.
“In my first reaction on the confusion engineered over the outcome of the Supreme Court Judgement on the Ondo gubernatorial election questioning the legality or otherwise of the Governor Buni led leadership of APC, I encouraged Nigerians not to be dismayed over the issue, as some of the elements spearheading the poor propaganda were pursuing a hidden stand which only a handful of us that work in the spirit can easily fathom,” he said.
Eze had earlier urged party faithful and well-meaning Nigerians to disregard the deceptive interpretation of the unambiguous judgement of the apex court.
“For avoidance of doubt and with hindsight, I commended the party leadership from my sickbed for ignoring the careless misstatements of political desperados who are plotting to plunge the party into crisis in a bid to frustrate and make nonsense the efforts of the Buni’s committee in restoring sanity and repositioning the party for better electoral results.
“The efforts of the misinterpretation promoting the trending bad blood, are aimed at nothing but the resuscitation of the dead National Working Committee of Adams Oshiomhole, whose image had been battered irredeemably and would be worth noting in this dispensation considering the seriousness of the times. This plot is dead on arrival,” he said.
Eze expressed delight that when the detailed judgment of the Supreme Court was made public on August 5, 2021, it was in consonance with the opinion he offered on the matter.
“The Supreme Court vindicated my stand by affirming that the leadership of Governor Buni as Chairman CECPC of the ruling APC is legal and lawful,” the party chief stated.
The Supreme Court had, in its ruling, indicated that having the Yobe State Governor as the CECPC Chairman does not contradict the provision of Section 183 of the CFRN.
Keyamo had advised Buni to resign from the position and call off the recently held congresses.
The labour minister and senior lawyer pointed out that Akeredolu became victorious at the court simply because his challenger, Jegede, didn’t join Buni as a defendant in his suit at the apex court.
Keyamo said that the Court by its ruling, only weaponised aggrieved members of the ruling party to battle Buni’s position as the party’s CECPC legally.
He warned the APC against ignoring the ruling by the apex court, saying that the party risked being destroyed “from top to bottom” by the judiciary.
