Confusion, celebration at APC National Secretariat as court sacks Oshiomhole

• Mustapha accuses suspended chairman of defying court order

The national secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was on Wednesday thrown into confusion as a Federal High Court in Abuja ordered Adams Oshiomhole to stop parading himself as APC national chairman. The court upheld the suspension of Oshiomhole by APD ward in Edo State.

APC National Vice-Chairman North East, Salihu Mustapha, raised alarm, accusing the embattled National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, of defying the Federal High Court order by trying to announce a new APC National Secretary after his suspension on Wednesday. Mustapha had argued that by virtue of the court’s order, any decision taken by Oshiomhole as APC national chairman is illegal.

The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday suspended Oshiomhole after granting an interlocutory injunction in an application filed on January 16 by a member of the APC, Oluwale Afolabi.

Afolabi predicated his application for the suspension of Oshiomhole on the suspension of the national chairman last year by a faction of the party in his home Edo State.

Ruling on the application, Justice Danlami Senchi ordered the suspension of  Oshiomhole pending the determination of the substantive suit.

The court also ordered that the embattled national chairman should not be allowed into the party’s national secretariat.

It was learned Mustapha in a media interaction in Abuja disclosed that Oshiomhole has defied the court’s order by directing the APC national publicity secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, to announce Waziri Bulama as the party’s National Secretary.

Mustapha is a member of APC National Working Committee (NWC).

“Immediately the court injunction was given, the national chairman has called the party’s National Publicity Secretary (Lanre Issa-Onilu) to issue a statement that Bulama is the National Secretary of the party.

“I believe you guys are aware of the meeting held about a month ago on that matter, which ended without a decision. Since then there has not been a decision as to the replacement of the secretary,” Mustapha was cited to have said.

He cautioned that illegal actions by the suspended chairman, Oshiomhole, after the court order, will “create more chaos within the party”.

“The public should know that any decision that Oshiomhole makes henceforth is an illegal decision and will not hold.

“We will keep our fingers crossed until the court decides. I am saying this so that there can be no two national secretaries and there can be no affirmation from a national chairman that has been suspended,” Mustapha had further said.

Report indicated that the vacant position in question was formerly occupied by the now Yobe Governor, Mai Mala Buni.

Several staff at the APC national secretariat were said to have gone wild celebration after the pronouncement of the court suspending the national chairman. Some APC members were also said to be part of the celebration at the secretariat.