Cross River APC crisis: Stakeholders seek Buhari, Tinubu intervention

Stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Cross Rivers State, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Leader of the party to step into the crisis rocking the APC in the state and stop it from snowballing into something else.

The party leaders also asked the National Working Committee to immediately cancel what it called an illegal Congress conducted by the former Deputy National Chairman, South, Engr. Segun Oni which they said disenfranchised over 90 percent of delegates.

A letter signed by the Chairman, Ikom Local Government and Area Council Caucus, Barrister Odey Oyama said the Congress fell short of the laws of the party and should be cancelled.

Oyama said leaders of the party must wade into the crisis with a view to ushering in lasting peace, adding that the disenfranchisement of 980 delegates aggravated the party crisis in the state and therefore required urgent attention.

Oyama stated, “By copy of this letter to the BOT chairman, the Chairman, Ikom Local Government and Area Council Caucus, Barrister Odey said the Congress fell short of the law and should be cancelled. By copy of this letter, we are notifying President Muhammadu Buhari, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,  as well as His Excellency (Senator) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (the Party Leader) of the crisis in Cross River State Chapter of APC and to emphasise that it requires urgent attention in order to prevent a multiplicity of actions.”

Oyama, said only 94  delegates including a woman “were rather deliberately handpicked to participate in the state Congress”, adding that the disenfranchisement of 980 legitimate delegates (i.e. about 91℅ of the total number of legitimate delegates that ought to have participated at the Congress is perverse.

“Therefore, in order to avoid the perpetuation of such gross impunity in APC, the BOT and/or the NWC has an inherent jurisdiction to set aside the congress that has been done in abuse of the APC  Constitution.

“Hence it is our prayer that the BOT and/or the NWC should evoke its prerogative and inherent jurisdiction to discountenance the state congress of Saturday, February 24, 2018 that held in Calabar.

“She Engr. Segun Oni’s Congress Committee lacked jurisdiction in excluding 91 per cent of constitutionally recognised delegates from participating in the state Congress. The prescribed procedures for conducting such a congress were not properly complied with and the event did not occur in consideration of the universal domain stipulated in the APC Constitution.

“An assembly of co-conspirators who wanted to appoint a handpicked person as state Chairman of the party in total disrespect of the Constitution of APC and the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This is a situation that has the potential of creating a very serious crisis in Cross River state chapter of APC, the letter said.

In another letter, Oyama is seeking proper construction, interpretation and administration of the APC Constitution, adding that the state Congress which held in Calabar on February 24, 2018 was in breach of the party’s Constitution as “it did not give at least 14 days notice to eligible members to attend.”

He said the decision to hold the congress was taken at the National Secretariat Abuja on February 19, 2018, he stated that the congress held on February 24 indicating that only a 4-day notice was given to the members against the letters of the party Constitution.

He said the party also flouted the statutory notice it was supposed to give to the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).