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Major crisis brews in APC as all 6 zonal chairmen attack Oyegun’s leadership

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Major crisis brews in APC as all 6 zonal chairmen attack Oyegun’s leadership

If a memo dated January 17, 2018 and sent to the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) by the six zonal vice chairmen of the party is anything to go by, then the ruling APC may be heading for a major crisis.

Sounding like persons who have been for long dumped and neglected, the chairmen bemoaned lack of transparency, accountability, abandonment of zones and general mishandling of the party’s affairs by the party’s leadership led by its national chairman, Chief John Oyegun.

The strongly-worded memo were signed by the six zonal vice chairmen of the party, Chief Pius Akinyelure (Southwest), Comrade Mustapha Salihu (Northeast), Alhaji Zakari Idde (Northcentral), Inuwa Abdulkadir (Northwest), Hon. Emma Eneukwu (Southeast) and Ntufam Hilliard Eta (South-south).

Apparently unhappy with Oyegun’s leadership style, the chairmen in the memo regretted that the ruling party’s constitution had been “disregarded since the inception of the NWC, especially in the formation of ad-hoc committees, among others.”

They added, “This function, which constitutionally is the sole responsibility of the National Working Committee, has been reduced to the whims of the national organising secretary under the watch of the national chairman.”

On the finances of the APC, the chairmen said, “Article 14b (iii) of the party’s constitution on finances has been grossly abused since the inception of this body. The state of the financial affairs of the party is shrouded in secrecy and lacking in transparency; such that it makes it virtually impossible for members of the National Working Committee to authoritatively defend the various expenditure and incomes.”

According to the six chairmen, the income and expenditure of the party has never been brought to the NWC for consideration and approval.

On how the zones have been abandoned, they alleged that the structures of the party except that of the national executive have remained non functional contrary to what the party’s constitution stated.

They said, “Particularly, the Zonal Executive Committees have more often than not been bypassed by the national chairman in many of the interventions at the state chapters without due regard to the grand norm of the party.”

They further described as outrageously abnormal, “the continuous change of party structures or officers without due respect and/or recourse to the constitution of our great party. The frequency and brazenness with which the changes take place without due authorization from relevant organs of the party is intolerable. Kano, Kaduna, Gombe and Ondo chapters are critical examples.

“Given this misnomer, the structures of the party in the affected jurisdictions have continuously been weakened.”

Stating their demands for peace to reign, the chairmen demanded that the constitution of the party must be adhered to in the remaining tenure of the NWC, adding that all ad-hoc committees must be constituted as envisaged by the party constitution.

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The national financial secretary of the party, they said, should urgently make available to the NWC the revenue and expenditure profile of the party, and that NWC should endeavour to fund the zonal structures of the party.

They added, “The NEC-approved sharing formula of 50 per cent to the national secretariat, 40 per cent to the states and 10 per cent to the zones from all revenues accruable to the party must be implemented forthwith.”

The chairmen, while insisting that changes in the party structures at any level should be done as intended by the party’s constitution, further asked that earlier actions taken in this regard without recourse to the party’s constitutional must be reversed.

 

 

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