Expulsion threats: Adamu can’t bully me into submission, says Lukman

PUNCH

The National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress for the North-West, Mallam Salihu Lukman, has again called out the leadership of the party for failing to address his complaints on anomalies and constitutional breaches.

This was even as Lukman lashed out at the National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, saying he could not be intimidated by his alleged constant bullying and threats to expel him from the ruling party.

The Kaduna politician vented his anger in a statement he released in Abuja on Friday titled “Open Letter to APC Leaders: For the Attention of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Sen. Iyiola Omisore.”

The development comes barely three days after Lukman accused the APC national chairman of acting as a factional leader who subtly opposes the zoning decisions approved by the National Working Committee after due consultations with President Bola Tinubu.

In Friday’s statement, the APC vice chairman for the North-West decried that he has been indirectly tormented by the party leadership over claims that he has breached their agreement not to subject internal debates to media scrutiny.

He said, “Since the release of APC and Transition Politics on Wednesday, May 31, I have been accused of violating the agreements we reached at the NWC meeting of May 3 to the effect that I should stop media campaigns and use internal structures of the party to make my demands. First, the agreements of May 3 presuppose that structures of the party would be activated to guarantee internal contestations and debates.

“So far, the only structure of the party meeting is the NWC. Even the NWC, since the agreement of May 3, no dedicated meeting was convened to consider all the issues that made it compelling to institute the court case aimed at restoring constitutional order in APC in the first place. As a person, no one, not even the National Chairman or National Secretary being the two presiding officers of the party have deemed it fit to invite me for any form of engagement on the issues I raised, which compelled me to institute the legal action against them and the APC. All I see is return to business as usual.

“A party aspiring to be a progressive party must respect its constitution and at the minimum allow all its organs to meet as enshrined in the constitution. It is not about convenient interpretation, which with respect to the NEC, for instance, is statutorily required to meet quarterly and the National Legal Adviser, Barr. Ahmed El-Marzuq would brazenly and audaciously seek to manipulate the NWC to imagine that meetings of NEC should be at the discretion of NWC. This is the kind of advice you can only get from any member of the legal profession whose knowledge of the law is so narrow and self-serving, which is most unfortunate.”

Speaking further, the former director general of the Progressive Governors’ Forum stated that he can never be cowered nor become intimidated over the frantic attempts being made to kick him out of the party for refusing to align with some ill-conceived decisions in the APC.