A former national vice chairman (North West) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Mohammed Lukman has asked the national chairman of the party, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to convene the meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) and other relevant bodies of the party within 16 days or face legal action.
In a letter, dated May 21, 2024, and addressed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC chieftain wanted the President to intervene by compelling Ganduje to convene such meetings.
The letter, which was made available to newsmen today, May 22 in Abuja, were copied to Vice President Kashim Shettima; Senate President, Godswill Akpabio; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen; Chairman, Progressive Governors’ Forum, Hope Uzodinma, and Ganduje.
The letter reads in part: “l am compelled to kindly draw Your Excellency’s attention that as it is, our party is operating almost blindly without recourse to provisions of the APC Constitution. Meetings of organs as specified by relevant provisions of the APC Constitution are not taking place.
“Decisions, which established organs of the party are expected to take, are being taken by individual leaders outside those organs. One of the critical organs, the Board of Trustees, which is renamed National Advisory Council has not been inaugurated since the formation of the APC in July 2013.
“With such reality, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party has appropriated the powers of all organs and in its name the National Chairman is taking discretionary decisions.
“With such reality, many of the decisions taken not only violate sections of the APC Constitution but also undermine Sections 221 — 229 of Part Il of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended as well as the Electoral Act 2022.
“I want to kindly demand that every necessary initiative should be started between now May 21, 2024 and June 7, 2024 to activate all organs of the APC in line with the extant provisions of the party’s constitution.
“Failure to do that will compel me as a patriotic Nigerian and loyal party member who has paid his dues to seek legal redress. Democracy is meaningless without functional political parties.”
The various organs of the APC that have not met since Ganduje assumed office on August 3, 2023, are the National Executive Committee (NEC) which is the second highest decision-making organ, after the national convention; National Caucus and the National Advisory Council, also called the Board of Trustees (BoT).
