Minister for State Labour and Productivity, Festus Keyamo (SAN), has called out his party, the All Progrives Congress (APC) to urgently put its house in order in view of Wednesday’s Supreme Court judgment in the case of Eyitayo Jegede vs Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, to save the party from destruction.
Keyamo advised his party to use the judgment as a spring board to carry out fundamental changes and halt all activities of the caretaker committee to save the APC from total collapse.
The Supreme Court had, on Wednesday, in a split judgment of 4 to 3, upheld the election of Akeredolu as the governor of Ondo State on the platform of the APC.
Eyitayo, who contested the governorship election with Akeredolu as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer in the Oct. 10, 2020 guber election, had challenged the validity of Akeredolu’s candidacy, arguing that the Yobe State Gov. Mai Mala Buni led Caretaker Committee that ratified the candidacy of Akeredolu was unknown to law.
Jegede and the PDP further submitted that as a governor, Buni holding the position of chairman of the caretaker committee was violation of the Nigeria’s Constitution.
The apex court agreed with Jegede’s argument but faulted non inclusion of Buni in his petition as fatal to the case.
In their split judgement on Wednesday, while four members of the apex court panel led by Justice Emmanuel Agim, agreed with Akeredolu and the APC that non joinder of Buni was fatal to the case and rendered the appeal incompetent, three others, led by Justice Peter-Odili, in the dissenting minority verdict, disagreed.
Justice Peter-Odili’s group went ahead to uphold the argument of Jegede and the PDP, stressing that since the APC, for which Buni acted, was a party in the case, there was no need to include him as a necessary party in the appeal against Akeredolu.
Meanwhile, reacting to the judgment, Keyamo advised his party to halt all activities of the caretaker committee, including the congesses slated for this weekend, to save it from further litigation.
In a letter to the party, titled: “The Implication of the Supreme Court Judgment Today in Jegede vs Akeredolu as it Affects the APC,” Keyamo said allowing the caretaker committee to continue to run the affairs of the party would have a far-reaching effect, which could lead to the destruction of the APC.
The letter reads: “The Supreme Court by a narrow split decision today (4-3) held that GOV. AKEREDOLU cannot be removed as Governor of Ondo State. The little technical point that saved Gov AKEREDOLU was that Jegede failed to join GOV. Mai Mala Buni in the suit. Jegede was challenging the competence of Gov. Mai Mala Buni as a sitting Governor to run the affairs of the APC as Chairman of the Caretaker Committee. He contends that this is against Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution which states that a sitting Governor shall not, during the period when he holds office, hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever. In other words, had Buni been joined in the suit, the story may have been different today as we would have lost Ondo State to the PDP.
“Therefore, any other person affected by the actions of the Buni-led Committee will henceforth not fail to join him in any subsequent case in court. These includes any subsequent election matter in any part of this country and all the APC Congresses that are about to hold. The Supreme Court has just weaponised all those that would be aggrieved by the APC Congresses to proceed to court to Challenge the competence of the Buni-led CECPC to organise the Congresses and National Convention. The judiciary will subsequently destroy the entire structure of the Party from bottom to top. We are lucky the Supreme Court has just given us a great and useful hint to save our Party just before the beginning of our Congresses. We cannot gamble with this delicate issue. The time to act is NOW.
▪︎WHAT TO DO.
“The planned Congresses across the country slated for this weekend must immediately be suspended because it will be an exercise in futility as analysed above. The competence of Gov. Mai Mala Buni to organise the congresses has been called to question by the Supreme Court.
▪︎FIRST OPTION
“Firstly, the NEC of the Party can URGENTLY meet and consider and reconstitute the CECPC to exclude, not only Gov. Buni, but anyone holding ANY executive position in any government establishment as stipulated in Article 17 of the APC Constitution.
▪︎WHO SUMMONS NEC NOW AS THERE IS TECHNICALLY NO COMPETENT NATIONAL CHAIRMAN?
“Under Article 25 of the APC Constitution, it is the National Chairman OR TWO-THIRDS OF MEMBERS OF NEC that can Summon a NEC meeting. Since we cannot vouch for the legality of any NEC meeting summoned by MAI MALA now, the safest is to get TWO-THIRDS of NEC members to sign an Invitation to summon a NEC meeting where the CECPC would be reconstituted and our Party would be safe.
▪︎SECOND OPTION
“Alternatively, the Board of Trustees of the Party, which includes Mr. President, can be activated to organise a National Convention in line with Article 13 of the APC Constitution where it is given such powers. Those powers can be delegated at the meeting to a Committee in line with the APC Constitution which will run the Party and plan the Convention. The new Exco can then plan for Congresses.
“Above are my humble and respectful suggestions to save our Party from imminent danger in the light of the Supreme Court judgment today. To ignore this and do otherwise would be tantamount to playing with fire and the opposition would simply wait till our Presidential Primaries in 2023 to disqualify our candidate and destroy the party.
“I have done my professional bit to the Party. I can do no more.”
FESTUS KEYAMO, SAN, FCIArb(UK)
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
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