Angry over split, APC vows to sue R-APC for these 4 ‘sins’

Apparently unhappy with the split in the party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has vowed to institute legal action against Alhaji Buba Galadima, and members of his Reformed APC group.

The party also hinted on reporting leading members of the R-APC faction of the ruling party to security agencies for possible arrest and legal action.

This was contained in a statement the national legal adviser of the Adams Oshiomhole-led APC, Babatunde Ogala, made available to newsmen on Sunday.

Ogala accused the Galadima led group of Impersonation, Fraudulent Misrepresentation, Conduct Likely To Breach Public Peace as well as Breach of Trademark and Infringement of Copy Right:

He said, “For the infringement so far committed by Mr Galadima and the odium he has brought upon the APC brand, we will be seeking civil redress against his person and that of his group.

“With respect to the criminal aspect of his conduct, we will be notifying the appropriate authorities to do the needful.”

The APC last week split into two when Galadima at a press conference in Abuja, announced the formation of R-APC, a faction of the party made up of majorly aggrieved members of the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) bloc of the APC.

But in his statement, the APC legal adviser claim that the press conference and statement issued by Galadima announcing R-APC “were reminiscent of the televised military address issued after a successful execution of a coup d’état,” which was a common scenario before the return of democracy in 1999.

Accusing Galadima and his group of resorting to self-help, Ogala wondered why R-APC did not approach the court to seek redress for the issues it had about events that took place during the recently concluded national convention of the APC.

According to him, the press release by Galadima announcing formation of R-APC could be captured under three major issues which he listed to be:

“That the party’s convention was improperly conducted by the convention chairman as consensus candidates were only subjected to a ‘yes’ vote in alleged contravention of Article 20 of the APC constitution.

“That a group of delegates have come together 10 days after the successful conduct of the APC convention to, in their words, ‘take control and give legitimacy’ to APC now to be known as Reformed APC.

“That R-APC, whose congresses and convention date has yet to be disclosed, already has the full complement of national executives, national working committee, state executives and local government officials in all 774 local government areas across the country.”

Ogala who faulted the position of the Galadima-led R-APC on the national convention outcome, also faulted the group on how it put in place, new executives.

“Where did they hold their own convention?”, he asked.

Ogala continued, “is it not a requirement of the same APC constitution that positions must be subjected to election either democratically of through consensus? Were the so called executives of this new contraption elected by consensus or by contestation? Have they ever heard of or read the provisions of Section 85 of the Electoral Act? Have they seen the Guidelines for the Registration of New Political Parties 2014? Were officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at their imaginary congress? These are questions that speak to the real intent of this group which is to perpetuate impunity, breach public peace by causing political pandemonium and reap benefits from the vandalization of our democratic process. But APC will not allow that”.

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On how the APC faction amounts to criminal breaches of the law, the APC legal adviser insisted that the consequence of Galadima’s action was that he and his “gang” committed different criminal infractions against the APC.

He added that for Galadima to have referred to himself as a national chairman, was an offence of impersonation.

Criminal action also allegedly committed by the R-APC chairman, was to have knowingly made a statement which he knew to be untrue with the aim of deceiving Nigerians into abandoning the APC.

He went further to say that the APC is a brand owned by members of the political party so registered and that for Galadima and his group to have used the APC brand, was an infringement on the copyright of the APC and was thus liable.

 

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