NWC tenure elongation: APC expels members who challenged NEC decision in court

The Secretary, Forum of States Chairmen of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Ben Nwoye, in Enugu revealed that following the provisions of APC’s Constitution, all the members who took the party to court over extension of tenure of its leadership at various levels have been expelled from the party.

Nwoye, the APC Chairman in Enugu State, said that the party i\was surprised that some of its forum members went to court after it had accepted extension of tenures for the party executive nationwide.

He said: “We (APC States Chairmen) agreed on tenure extensions because this is election year and that it will harm the party if you go into extensive convention”, saying that they recommended two years extension but the NEC pegged it at one year, which was unanimously agreed by majority of members.

According to him, “the 33 out of 37 Chairmen agreed on the extension because we are all aware of different crises in the country and we did not want to compound the crises, and so we passed votes of confidence on President Buhari and on Tinubu’s reconciliation committee.

“Only four voted against the decision but that could not override the majority votes. They did not petition the party’s NEC nor the Tinubu committee and they now went to court.”

He stated that those who dragged the party to court over the tenure extension failed to explore all the available internal conflict resolution options, including going to the Senator Tinubu’s led reconciliation committee.

“However, article 21 (a) of our party Constitution recommends automatic expulsion for members that take the party to court without exhausting all available internal settlement measures.

“The provision is self execution and does not need a committee to pronounce the expulsion on them. But once they withdraw the action, they automatically regain their memberships,” Nwoye declared.

Nwoye maintained that the tenure elongation is aimed at stabilizing the nation’s democracy, adding: “it is also for the interest of our party.”

He declared that since the party’s NEC remains the highest decision making body, the members who went to court are not conversant with the APC constitution.