3 complications which may stop APC’s scheduled convention on 26th of March

The last has not been heard about the turmoil currently brewing in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Ever since news filtered in that the erstwhile caretaker committee chairman and the governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni has been ousted from office, a whole lot of issues have sprung up within the party.

According to some party members, the Mai Buni-led committee had stirred the anger of some party members due to their alleged refusal to conduct the party’s national convention.

According to the Kaduna state governor, Buni had secretly gotten hold of a court order which would legally put a stop to APC’s plans to hold the convention. This had pitched Buni against some party faithful and that had led to his ouster.

However, even with Buni’s purported removal, the party is still headed for the rocks as 3 key issues still stand on the party’s way to the conventions.

1, A pending Lawsuit that seeks to stop the convention

Last year, an aggrieved APC member, Hon. Salisu Umoru had taken possession of a court order which restrained the party from conducting the national convention.

According to the court order, it was ruled that the All progressives Congress can only conduct its national convention after the hearing and determination of the substantive suit pending before the court.

After the first ruling, the case was first adjourned to the 10th of January 2022 for hearing at the Kubwa high court in Abuja.

Surprisingly, the same case was a second time, adjourned for hearing till March 30, which is 4 days after the scheduled national convention.

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The Party’s national body is yet to appeal nor vacate this ruling.

Nasir Elrufai described this court order as a “Nuclear Weapon” as he lamented that with about 2 weeks to the convention date, the court order is yet to be vacated or appealed.

2, INEC laws governing NEC meetings, conventions

A copy of INEC’s reply to APC’s invitation to witness the meeting of the national executive council of the party has been online since yesterday. As seen in that letter, INEC had drawn the attention of the party to the laws/ámendments of the electoral act which governs the holding of such meetings.

According to Section 82(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended), the electoral body expects that every registered political party shall give the Commission at least 21 days’ notice of any:

A. Convention

B, Congress

C, Conference or Meeting convened for the purpose of ‘merger’ and electing members of the executive committee, other governing bodies or nominating candidates for any of the elective offices specified under this Act.

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With barely 2 weeks to the proposed convention date, the APC does not have the 21 days notification period to enable INEC to witness whatever changes or discussions the party hopes to present during its NEC meeting.

What this means is that INEC cannot be a party to APC’s planned NEC meeting and that will be detrimental to the party’s future as any critical decision which would be taken at that NEC meeting is null and void.

3, Failure of Buni’s exit to be ratified by the NEC

During Governor El-Rufai’s interview with ChannelsTV, the interviewer placed a very important question to him bothering on the legality of removing the Buni-led EXCO.

According to El-Rufai, the new acting chairman, Gov Bello is due to call a NEC meeting anytime soon. This was necessary as it was only the NEC that had the power to officially terminate the appointment of the Buni-led executive.

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As it stands, INEC has officially refused to accept the Bello-led caretaker committee as the new team is adjudged to be an illegal set-up since it was not backed by the NEC.

According to the letter sent in by INEC, the electoral body had noted that the letter inviting it to the APC National Executive Council meeting was not signed by the recognised caretaker chairman, Mai Buni and his team.

If APC therefore, fails to remove Buni as its caretaker committee chairman as envisaged, then the party would face a catastrophic internal crisis as the party leadership would now revolve around Buni and Bello.

This, of course, will result in a chaotic scenario which will, in turn, affect the timely hosting of the planned national convention.