APC backs court order suspending Oshiomhole, as governors shop for his replacement

*Oshiomhole reacts to suspension order

*Suspended chair about to create chaos –National Vice Chairman, N’East

*Oshiomhole’s supporters, anti-national chair protesters clash

*Obey before complain, Ekiti APC tells Oshiomhole

*Obaseki celebrates court ruling on Oshiomohle

Acting National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Victor Giadom, has expressed the party’s National Working Committee (NWC)’s willingness to respet the court ruling suspending Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and any other order which might arise.

Giadom, in a media interview after the court pronouncement Wednesday, said: “As a party, we are aware of the injunction. As a law-abiding party, we will respect all lawful court orders. Very soon, the national working committee will meet and you will hear further from the party.

“I am trying to say that the All Progressives Congress will respect all lawful court orders. We will soon do that.”

Speaking specifically about the suspension of the party’s national chairman, he said, “Like I did say, there’s a court injunction and it is binding on us as a party to respect all the court injunctions.”

It was gathered that the embattled national chairman met with five members of the  NWC at his private office in Aso Drive, Abuja. Details of the meeting were still sketchy as at press time.

In the meantime, battle for the control of the party between governors elected on the platform of the APC and Oshiomhole’s loyalists within the party appears to have been revisited as, according to information reaching The DEFENDER, the governors are planning a NEC to shop for the suspended chairman’s replacement.

It was gathered Wednesday night that some APC governors had intensified moves to shop for Oshiomhole’s replacement as there were indications on Wednesday that they would soon convene a meeting of the party’s NEC, where Oshiomhole’s successor might emerge.

According to a media report, a high-ranking member of the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “The governors are considering calling for an emergency National Executive Council meeting to consider the way forward.”

“They are likely to pick an acting National Chairman and prepare for a substantive chairman. They are considering asking him to honourably resign. The President (Major-General Muhammadu Buhari)  refused to say anything on the matter when they ran to him. As things stand, an emergency meeting is on the cards because until the court order is vacated, Oshiomhole cannot convene any official meeting.”

Commenting on the issue, the spokesperson for the suspended national chairman, Simon Ebegbulem, said, “We have filed for a stay of execution and appealed the order. Comrade Adams Oshiomhole remains the national chairman.”

Oshiomhole appealed against the order for his suspension on Wednesday.

He filed four grounds of appeal before the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, praying for an order setting aside the interlocutory injunction issued by Justice Danlami Senchi of the FCT High Court.

In the notice of appeal filed in his name and that of the APC, the appellants contended that the judge “arrived at a wrong conclusion” in his ruling and it “occasioned a miscarriage of justice”.

The appellants also argued through his lawyer, Mr Damian Dodo (SAN), that the judge in his ruling prejudged the substantive case by erroneously delving into the issue of his performance of the duty of his office as the national chairman of the party at the preliminary stage.

They added, “The trial court determined the motion for interlocutory injunction without recourse to triable issues which ought to have been discerned from pleadings.”

Oshiomhole also said the court relied on “extraneous construction and speculation to overrule the appellants’ contention that  the disruption capable of being occasioned by the grant of the interlocutory injunction outweighed the inconvenience to be suffered by the first to the sixth respondents.”

Earlier, the National Vice Chairman (North-East), Salihu Mustapha, expressed support for the court decision. He told reporters that following the court injunction, Oshiomhole was in no position to issue any instruction as doing so will be “illegal, null and void.”

He explained that his intervention was based on information that Oshiomhole allegedly instructed the APC National Publicity Secretary to issue a statement announcing Waziri Bulama, as acting national secretary.

Mustapha said, “Immediately the court injunction was given, the national chairman called the party’s chief press secretary (national publicity secretary) to issue a statement to the press that Waziri Bulama is the (acting) National Secretary to the party.

“I believe you guys are aware of the meeting held about a month ago on that matter, which ended without a decision. Since then there has not been a decision as to the replacement of the secretary.

“The chairman is about to create more chaos within the party as he gave the order.

“The public should know that any decision that Oshiomhole makes henceforth is an illegal decision and will not hold.

“We will keep our fingers crossed until the court decides. I am saying this so that there can be no two acting national secretaries and there can be no affirmation from a national chairman that has been suspended.”

Later in the day policemen asked party officials and journalists to vacate the secretariat as ex-Edo governor’s supporters clashed with anti-Oshiomhole protesters outside the secretariat.

Attempts to get a response from the party’s National Legal Adviser, Babatunde Ogala, and the National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, were futile.

Reacting to the ruling, Obaseki and the APC chapters in Edo and Zamfara states said the embattled chairman should step down.

The Deputy Chairman of the APC in Ekiti State, Sola Elesin, in an interview with The PUNCH said  Oshiomhole should obey the decision of the court which ordered him to step aside.

Elesin said, “The way forward is that he (Oshiomhole) should obey the law court.  There is what we call ‘obey before complain’. The first thing is for him to abide by the instruction of the court. I support the court order because in a democratic setting, the court is the last hope.

“Some people have been agitating, even our state, that he should stop using autocratic powers. We abhor the type of attitude that he put to party administration and that was among the reasons some people went to court to ask him to step aside,” the APC deputy chairman said.

Obaseki, on his part, said the court ruling in Abuja affirming the suspension of  Oshiomhole had shown that no man is God.

The governor said the problem he had with the APC national chairman was that he (Oshiomhole) failed to heed his advice to denounce the Edo Peoples Movement, a group supporting the former Edo State governor.

But addressing a crowd in Benin shortly after the ruling, Obaseki said he was not afraid of contesting against anybody, “but they have to do it according to the rules of the game.

“We have learnt a lesson and today is a new era in Edo State. I am saying this with all sense of responsibility considering where the party has come from,” he said.

The Obaseki- backed chairman,  Anselm Ojezua, said it was a great day for the people of the state and the party that the Abuja High Court had finally suspended  Oshiomhole.