Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum, Salihu Mohammed Lukman has again accused the chairman of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) Adams Oshiomhole of running the party national secretariat like a sole administrator.
He made the allegation on Thursday in Abuja at a press briefing at the PGF secretariat. Lukman had in a statement on Wednesday asked Comrade Oshiomhole to resign from his position as chairman of the governing party.
Lukman submitted yesterday that any decision taking by the party national working committee without recourse to the National Executive Committee and the national caucus amount to illegality.
The Director-General of the PGF noted that the National Working Committee under Comrade Oshiomhole leadership was merely an administrative organ which should draw its authority from all other statutory organs like the National Executive Committee, the national caucus and the highest organ, the national convention.
Lukman expressed disaffection that the provision of the party constitution which mandated the National Working Committee to convene a quarterly meeting of NEC and national caucus has been observed in the breach.
He recalled that the last time a meeting of the APC NEC was convened in August 2018.
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He said:” Having said all of these, I want to say that the request for him to convene a meeting of the NEC was first inspired by his commitment in the first place when he announced his intention to run for the national chairman of the APC.
“And if you read the (Oshiomhole’s inaugural) speech, he made the commitment that he would run the affairs of the party based on the Constitution. Now, the last time we had a NEC meeting was in August 2018.
” By the Constitution, the NWC which is today run by Oshiomhole which is an administrative organ derives its powers from the decisions of superior organs. It is supposed to be a meeting to map out strategies in terms of how to implement decisions of the NEC and National Convention would have taken and then meet monthly to review progress and report progress in the next quarter in terms of implementation. That has not happened.
“The issue here is that every-day, the NWC under Comrade Adams Oshiomhole continues to run the affairs of the party without convening NEC meetings, it is working illegally.
“We are living with the danger of Zamfara being reincarnated and a court judgment may later come that we do not have a candidate.”
Lukman said his call for Comrade Oshiomhole resignation was a personal position, not a directive from the governors.
He, however, claimed that in private discussions, the governors have expressed frustrations with the party national chairman leadership style.
“I want to say that all that we tried to do especially with respect to the statement in question is, first of all, we are Nigerians.
Two, we are party members and three, I can tell you that as a privileged person, being the DG of the PGF, I am privileged to relate with not just governors but everyone in the party. And to that extent, one can have a feel of the concerns, the worries and really, the frustration that exist in the party.
I thought I needed to make this background clarification because I received calls from people asking me whether the statement was coming from governors or from me as a person.
Those issues need not even come up. What is at stake is the substance and content. If anybody wants to dispute it, they should look into the content and I think that is the challenge before us. This is what this country requires.
” I remember there was a session I told you that our party, the APC is a product of sacrifice. Our leaders from President Buhari to the leaders of the Legacy Parties that dissolved themselves to give birth to the APC made huge sacrifices and Comrade Adams who I must emphatically say I owe a lot to his person having been with him almost all my working life – he gave me the job that launched me into where I am today – and to this day I believe we share basically the same convictions. And if I say that I am worried at the direction he is taking the party, I think he himself, should be worried because this is not the Adams that really, everybody has the confidence in.”
“There is no meeting of governors where the decision was taken on this matters, that is why I am saying that first of all, I am talking as a Nigerian, secondly, I am talking as a loyal party member and thirdly, as somebody who knows the sentiments.
Everybody is worried. But the truth is that even Comrade Adams knows, once you are on the side of truth, you do not need an office to speak out. The truth is that, must we wait to lose the election in Bayelsa before we act?”
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