Crisis has resurged in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as a former National Vice Chairman and ex-acting chairman of the party is dragging the party through the court.
Hilliard Eta dragged the party through a Federal High Court in Abuja, asking it to nullify the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party.
Eta also asked the Abuja federal high court to declare him as the Acting National Chairman of the ruling APC.
The National Executive Committee of the APC had at its meeting held at the Presidential Villa on June 25, dissolved the party’s National Working Committee, led by the then suspended National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.
At the meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, NEC had set up the caretaker committee and appointed the Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni, as the chairman of the committee.
Listed as defendants in the suit filed by Hilliard are Mai Mala Buni in his capacity as chairman of the caretaker committee; John Akpan Udoedehe as the National Secretary; as well as Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State, Governor Sani Bello of Niger State, and Stella Okotete, as members of the committee.
The plaintiffs joined the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the sixth defendant.
The plaintiffs argued among others that by virtue of Section 183 of the Nigerian Constitution and Article 17 (iv) of the constitution of the APC, it was an illegality and a void act for a person to hold an executive office in the government simultaneously with an office in any organ of the APC at any level, in whatever capacity. (With reports from TNG)
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