Leadership crisis in the All Progressives Congress (APC ), Delta state, reared its ugly head again, with some stakeholders passing a no-confidence vote on a factional leader in the state. AMAECHI OKWARA reports the fresh crisis
To political observers keenly watching the infighting among leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Delta state, unless the party takes urgent steps to end the cracks it may be heading for its doom as the internal rift worsens. Crisis again, hit the party at the weekend when a caucus raised the alarm that the State Chairman, Prophet Jones Erue was working against the party’s resolution that the district should produce the party’s governorship candidate in 2019 general elections.
The caucus accused Erue of being used by some political cabal in Delta central to consistently marginalise, undermine the political interest of Delta North district in APC.
In a statement by Anioma Patriots in APC, signed by its Chairman, Chief Emmanuel Eboha, the group said that Erue has brazenly usurped official position of Delta northerners in the party, giving the impression that APC is an Urhobo ethnic political party.
The Patriots recalled that the leadership caucus meeting which was convened on Saturday, March 4 , 2017, at the instance of the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachiukwu, with notable chieftains of the party in attendance, had resolved to zone the governorship position to Delta North.
According to the statement: “the state caucus meeting, it should be recalled came prior to a peace meeting held in Abuja by the national chairman, Chief Odgie Oyegun , in which Prof. Pat Utomi, Chief Great Ogboru and Mr. Hyacinth Enuha were physically present. So the Dr. Kachiukwu parley was convened as a follow up peace and reconciliation meeting to distil the rapport of the Abuja peace accord.”
The statement noted that: “It is therefore regrettable that the state chairman who was present in person at both meetings could deliberately set up machinations to undo the peace accord
already cemented and seek to undermine the relations reached by the national leadership of the part.,”
The Aioma Patriots then passed a vote of no confidence on Erue and demanded that the national leadership of the party deal decisively with the ugly development and reposition the party on its winsome track of abiding on the existing governorship zoning arrangement in the state.
In the same vein, Chief Nduka opposed the speculated plot to zone the leadership of Delta state chapter of the party to Delta North in the forthcoming congress with plan to alter the governorship zoning arrangement in favour of another senatorial district.
Nduka said that “the ill-conceived agenda would strangle the rapidly booming popularity of the APC in the state and eventually kill the party as a widely accepted alternative platform in Delta”.
“We have taken notice of ominous plots by some desperate politicians to scuttle the political zoning arrangement for the governorship position, which was established since 1999. When the current democratic dispensation took off, Delta Central district was endorsed and massively supported to produce the governor.”
“As far as committed members of the APC are concerned, the governorship position is non-negotiable and our party should work in this popular direction to deliver a candidate of APC from Anioma extraction,” Nduka stressed.
The APC stalwart maintained that the state stands on the tripod and the understanding of the governorship position must remain sacrosanct and should be respected by all political parties.
It would be recalled that not too long ago,the Chief Adolo Okotie-Eboh-led faction of APC, in the State described as contemptuous and an act of impersonation, “the actions of some members of the dissolved executive of the party, led by Prophet Jones Erue, which was on April 30, 2015 declared illegal by Justice Obi of the Delta State High Court, Asaba”.
The spokesman of the Okotie-Eboh faction, Mr. Alex Eyengho, who addressed newsmen, said that the judgment delivered by Justice Obi in the suit by Chief Okotie-Eboh, declared as illegal, the congress that purportedly elected Prophet Erue and others as executives of the Delta State APC.
His words: “We read in the newspapers a few days ago where Prophet Erue addressed party faithful in his capacity as Delta State Chairman of APC. This seems to have been the trend by key members of the dissolved state executive, as they want to carry on as though nothing had happened even after the court judgment of April 30, sacking them from office.
“Until a higher court (of appeal) rules otherwise, this is the law. We want to remind Prophet Erue and others that they can be committed to jail for impersonation and contemptuous actions.
“There is a subsisting court judgment which has sacked them from office and indeed ordered a fresh congress to elect new and substantive executives for APC in Delta State. Until that is done, anybody that parades himself as Chairman, Secretary or any other position in a non- existing APC Delta State executive body is doing so in gross violation and disobedience to a subsisting court judgment.
“In fact and by implication and by my layman’s interpretation, what this means is that all actions taken by the sacked Prophet Erue-led illegal executive body is null and void and of no consequence whatsoever. By extension, this means that there was never a candidate or candidates in all elections that were conducted in Delta State during the illegal tenure of Prophet Erue and others as state executive.
I am talking about the local government, governorship, state and National Assembly elections. The APC candidates in those elections have no locus to even challenge the elections they lost at the tribunals because they emerged as candidates through a process facilitated by illegal state executives and delegates. I hope Prophet Erue, his sacked team and their principal know this,” Eyengho reportedly stated.
From all these it is no secret that the party has moved from one crisis to another under two years.
Lamenting the crisis confronting the party in the state, its 2015 Delta State House of Assembly candidate for the Warri South 1 Constituency seat, Robinson Ariyo, observed that the APC might lose an opportunity of presenting a candidate in the upcoming by-election into the vacant Warri South 1 State Constituency seat if the national secretariat of the party fails to urgently resolve the leadership crisis in the state. Ariyo who disclosed this recently while briefing journalists in Warri, Delta state declared that the party in the state lacked cohesion, as about six factions are laying claim to leadership.
Also, Ariyo noted that the Prophet Jones Erue faction had violated the spirit of the party’s constitution by filing a suit against the party, without exhausting internal provisions for redress, an action which punish us automatic expulsion from the party.
According to him, the APC in Delta State currently has no leadership as Erue’s-led council had been terminated by a subsisting court action instituted in 2014 by an aggrieved group in the party, led by Chief Adolo Okotie-Eboh, adding that Erue and those who joined him in 2015 to file the suit against the party had automatically been expelled by the party’s constitution.
“On April 30, 2015, the Adolo Okotie-Eboh -ed SEC successfully upturned the legal status of Jones Erue-led SEC in a Suit No. A/245/2014. Let’s bear in mind that an appeal has been filed against the judgement by the Erue’s led SEC. However, it is left for the APC to either act on the said judgement or pretend that its hands are tied by the judgement.
“APC has constitution and the law remains that every member of a political party is bound by the constitution of the party. Any member who files an action in Court of Law against the party or any of its officer on any matter relating to the discharge of duties, without first exhausting the avenues for redress provided for in the constitution shall automatically stand expelled from the party in filling such action.
“No appeal against expulsion stipulated in this clause shall be entertained until the withdrawal of the action from court by the members,” he said.
However, in its reaction to the development, the Erue-led executive council, through its acting Publicity Secretary, Leonard Obibi, said the alarm raised by Ariyo was an overreaction, noting that besides acting subjudice, he was not in a position to determine whether internal mechanisms were duly exhausted.
“It is my opinion that he’s not in a place to judge whether indeed internal processes were duly satisfied, that is the duty of the National Working Committee or the National Executive Committee of the party,” Obibi said.
It would be recall in January this year The Interim Committee of the APC in Delta State appealed to the national leaders of the party to wade into the crisis rocking the party in the state.
The chairman of the committee, Mr Omo-Onyeke Nathaniel, made the appeal, while speaking with newsmen in Warri.
Nathaniel lamented the crisis, saying “when there is a misunderstanding between children, it is their parents that reconcile them.”
He said despite the efforts of the party leadership in the state to end the feud, the desire result was yet to be yielding. Nathaniel said there was the need for the ruling party at the national level to intervene with a view to uniting the party in Delta in order to take the state in 2019.
”Our national leaders have a great role to play in bringing lasting peace to the party in the state”. Nathaniel insists.
