President Muhammudu Buhari
By Our Reporter
After so many conflicting court orders granted the controversial deputy national secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Victor Giadom, President Muhammadu Buhari declared his support for him and he swiftly called a virtual National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the party for Thursday.
deputy national secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Victor Giadom,
Garba Shehu, spokesman of the president had said Wednesday afternoon that the president would attend the meeting because “the law is on the side of Victor Giadom as Acting National Chairman.”
“The President has received very convincing advice on the position of the law as far as the situation in the party is concerned and has determined that the law is on the side of Victor Giadom as Acting National Chairman.
“We urge the media to stop promoting manufactured controversies and to not give any further room for mischievous interpretations of the law on this matter.
“In addition to the President, the Giadom meeting will, hopefully, be attended by our Governors and the leaders of the National Assembly,” Mr Shehu wrote on his Twitter account.
Giadom, who enjoys the support of some of the party’s governors and the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, has been in a tussle with a faction of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) for the control of the party since the appeal court upheld the suspension of Adams Oshiomhole as the national chairman, last week Tuesday.
Giadom, citing a court judgement in March, declared himself the acting national chairman of the party in the absence of Mr Oshiomhole.
The crisis rocking the APC seems unabated as Hilliard Eta, the party’s National Vice Chairman (South-south) led the main faction of the NWC, who had earlier appointed the deputy national chairman (south), Abiola Ajimobi, as interim chairman.
In a twist of events, Giadom was replaced on Monday by Worgu Boms, a day after the Rivers State chapter of the party declared him suspended over “gross infractions of the party’s constitution.
But that all is not well with the party is evident in the rejection of Giadom by the Senator Abiola Ajimobi-led National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress. It out rightly rejected the invitation extended to its members to attend the National Executive Committee meeting convened by Victor Giadom.
The NWC said this in a statement jointly signed by the Ag. National Chairman, Hilliard Eta, and Ag. National Secretary, Waziri Bulama, in Abuja, on Wednesday that President Buhari was wrongly advised and blackmailed to support an act of illegality.
The statement read, “We wish to unequivocally state that members of the National Working Committee believe that the President was offered wrong advice or blackmailed into lending his weighty office to the illegality of the National Executive Committee meeting purportedly convened by one Victor Giadom on 25th June, 2020.
“We hereby respectfully implore Mr. President to kindly avail himself with facts of the matter regarding the impasse presently experienced by the Party so as to guide him in his assessment of the matter because we are sure that the President, if properly advised, would come to the conclusion that the meeting convened by Chief Victor Giadom bothers on illegality and criminality.
“The National Working Committee regrets to turn down the invitation to the illegal and unconstitutional National Executive Committee convened by Chief Victor Giadom.
“We believe that attending such a meeting will amount to embracing illegalities and turning a blind eye to the infractions on the Constitution of our great Party.”
