‘We’re still in charge’, Ogun APC leadership draws battle line with Oshiomhole

Ogun State All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership has described story of dissolution of party structures at all levels in the state by the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee of the party as an exercise in futility.

The chairman of the supposedly dissolved Ogun APC executive, Derin Adebiyi, said the purported dissolution of the state party exco was not only a brazen disregard for the judiciary, hence the Nigerian constitution but also a flagrant abuse of power by the Oshiomhole-led NWC.

APC had dissolved the Ogun State exco apparently over their loyalty to the state governor, Ibikunle Amosun, who had vowed to ensure that APC loses the state governorship election.

Amosun and Oshiomhole had been at loggerheads with each other since the party’s controversial primaries that saw the governor’s anointed aspirant not selected as the state governorship candidate.

Though still a member of the APC and a senatorial candidate under the party’s platform, Amosun had encouraged his allies, including his anointed governorship aspirant to defect to another party.

APC in efforts to possibly curtail the influence Amosun may have on the state exco reportedly dissolved all the leaders of the party in the state from the ward, local to state levels.

Lanre Issa-Onilu, who confirmed the dissolution, said the exco right from the state to the ward level were not people they could trust to work honestly, for the success of the party in the next election.

In its response, the dissolved Ogun APC chairman, Adebiyi, said in a statement on Wednesday that the action was “an exercise in futility,” sub judice, “as it is before a court of competent jurisdiction, presided over by Hon. Justice Jude Okeke of the FCT High Court, Abuja.”

He said, “The Ogun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed its dissolution by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, as an exercise in futility, noting that the state chapter of the party remains in office and is carrying out its legal duties in line with the constitution of the APC.”

In the Suit No CV/363/2018, the Ogun State chapter of the party is seeking the protection of the court against attempts by the NWC to undermine it and abridge its tenure in any form.

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“The Ogun APC views its purported dissolution as a brazen disregard for the judiciary, hence the Nigerian constitution and flagrant abuse of power by the Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee.

“The action of the NWC is patently illegal; it is an assault on the APC constitution and outside the bounds of acceptable standards in the conduct of party affairs the world over. It was such acts of impunity that led us in the first place to seek legal protection for a four-year mandate freely given to us by the overwhelming majority of party members in Ogun State in May 2018.

“You cannot dissolve a legally constituted body, such as Ogun APC exco on a whim. When a matter is in court, all parties are expected to maintain the status quo. What Oshiomhole-led NWC has done amounts to self-help and bare-faced attempt to render nugatory the judicial powers granted the courts by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the statement added.

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