The National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the north-west, Salihu Moh Lukman, has faulted a recommendation for his expulsion from the party, saying such will not stop his suit against the party’s national chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and the national secretary, Iyiola Omisore.
The former Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) also declared that the APC constitution does not empower the National Working Committee (NWC) to discipline any member of the party.
The party’s national legal Adviser, Ahmad El-Marzuq, in a leaked memo to Adamu, had recommended the expulsion of Lukman for suing the party and some national officers.
Lukman had asked the federal high court in Abuja to compel Adamu and Iyiola Omisore, the party’s secretary, to publish APC’s financial records.
In a letter dated May 1, addressed to the national chairman, Lukman said he had already forwarded the said memo to his legal team, adding that he would proceed with the legal action to to restore constitutional order in APC.
President Muhammadu Buhari, President-elect Bola Tinubu, The Progressive Governors Forum and all the members of the NWC are also copied in Lukman’s letter to Adamu.
“There is nowhere in the APC Constitution where the NWC is given the power to discipline any member of the party,” he said.
“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’.
“Coming from the national legal adviser whose legal qualification is not in doubt smacks of a deliberate attempt to manipulate the NWC into subverting the Party’s constitution.
“Let me say it very clearly that I will proceed with the legal action I instituted to restore Constitutional order in APC up to the supreme court.
“It is pathetic that the national legal adviser, rather than providing an unbiased legal opinion to guide deliberations of organs of the party, would descend so low as to imagine that threats of disciplinary action is what is required at this point.”
Lukman believed that APC, being a party founded with the vision to promote progressive politics, must be about encouraging debates in organs of the party.
“Anybody who is not comfortable with positions that challenges decisions of leaders bordering on respecting provisions of our Party’s constitution should know that the APC is not where he/she belongs. 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.
“While looking forward to robust deliberations at the Wednesday’s meeting of it is my hope that one of the resolutions of the NNA/C will be to convene a meeting of NEC before May 29, 2023 where all the demands I have made including reports of activity, financial report covering income and expenditure of the party, zoning for National Assembly leadership, review of 2023 elections, among others can be considered and appropriate decisions taken.”
