Factional Lagos APC threatens to drag party’s NWC to court

A faction of the Lagos chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has threatened to drag the national working committee (NWC) led by Adams Oshiomhole to court if it goes ahead with primary elections in the state.

Recall that the party had fixed the primary elections for the 2019 polls for Wednesday next week.

But Fouad Oki, factional chairman of the APC in Lagos, in a statement made available to National Daily, said carrying on with the exercise might bring the APC in Lagos to ruins.

He accused the national secretariat of the APC of “carrying on with impunity and has, so far, been dealing with the impostors and renegades that emerged from the illegally conducted Congress in Lagos State”.

The crisis in the Lagos chapter took a new dimension in May when two parallel congresses produced different sets of executive, headed by Oki and Tunde Balogun.

Oki had petitioned the NWC saying the other faction’s congress lacked legal basis because it was conducted based on wards in 57 council areas instead of 20 approved by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Subsequently, the leadership of the party under John Oyegun, former national chairman, annulled the congresses and set up a five-man panel to dissect the constitutionality of the two congresses.

The committee had recommended that a “political solution” be reached but Oki said the panel is “nowhere to be found”.

In his letter, he advised the leadership of the party to resolve the issues in the state before holding primaries for the 2019 elections.

Oki said if the primaries would hold, the NWC has to send “impartial personnel” to conduct the exercise and another set to monitor those conducting it.

“We make bold to say that at the moment, our great Party cannot boast of a credible detailed membership register in Lagos State. Without the detailed, updated and genuine membership register, you will agree with us that the Party has prepared a fertile ground for a rigged primary election designed to favour some elements within the Party hierarchy whose primary drive is to destroy the good name of our great Party.

“More importantly, in conducting the primary elections, the National Secretariat cannot afford to accord any recognition to any person purportedly elected through the illegally conducted Ward, Local Government Area and State Congresses that are subject of the aforementioned pending court cases. If this is done, any primary election conducted in Lagos State will be void ab initio; the cause will be illegal. As the saying goes, no legal right can arise from an illegal cause.”