SUN NEWS
The crisis rocking the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) took a disturbing dimension, yesterday, as the North West vice chairman of the party and member National Working Committee (NWC), Salihu Moh Lukman, issued a one-week ultimatum to the National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, to convene an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting or risk legal action.
Lukman, in the letter, said he was scandalised and embarrassed that after one year in office, Adamu had failed to convene a regular NEC, National Caucus or National Advisory Council (NAC) meetings.
He threatened to take legal action against Adamu should he fail to convene the meeting to deliberate on multiple infractions he has committed as head of the ruling party. Lukmam accused Adamu of not being transparent with the finances of the party.
“With respect to national budget, the closest we came to was when the April 8, 2022 NEC approved the cost for nomination forms for 2022 elections. No proposed expenditure of any kind was presented to any organ of the party apart from the budget for the June 2022 National Convention, which was presented to the NWC on the eve of the June 2022 National Convention. Similarly, no report has been rendered to any organ including the NWC about any revenue received by the party…Large scale financial expenditure is being undertaken without any organ of the party including the NWC allowed to perform any form of statutory due diligence. The National Secretariat has been undergoing large scale renovation and both the costs and details of the contract is not provided to any organ of the party including the NWC.”
The former Director General of the APC Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), also reiterated his earlier call for the resignation of Iyiola Omisore, national secretary, over the poor performance of the party in Osun State, in both governorship and legislative elections.
Part of the letter read: “As a person, I have concluded that everything must be done to compel you to respect the constitution of our party and manage its affairs based on the requirements of our constitution and not your personal discretion. Therefore, by this open letter, I am serving you notice of one week from today, being Wednesday, April 19, 2023 to take all the appropriate steps required to convene a NEC meeting before May 29, 2023 wherein all the issues bordering on the management of smooth transition between the outgoing government of President Buhari and the incoming government of President Tinubu can be considered.
“If by the end of this one-week notice, no action is taken to convene NEC meeting as the first step to restore constitutional order in APC, I will not hesitate to take further actions, including approaching our courts to enforce compliance with the provisions of our party’s constitution under your leadership.
“The current NWC under your leadership should stop acting as a Trojan Horse programmed to destroy our party. Only compliance with and respect for our constitution by allowing all our superior organs, notably NEC, National Caucus and NAC, to function and take decisions accordingly, which should be binding on all party leaders and members can secure our party. This is not negotiable…
