APC may adopt Plan B over controversial congresses

The technical committee set up by the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the legality or otherwise of a-year acting appointment for the outgoing National Working Committee (NWC) did not discard the idea, Sunday  Tribune can reveal.

The panel, headed by the Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, actually upheld the legality of the acting appointment, but recommended it as a last resort if the congresses flopped.

The panel report is yet to be made public, weeks after it was submitted to the John Odigie-Oyegun-led NWC.

The panel, which included other senior lawyers, was asked to advise the party, following the sudden withdrawal of support for the acting appointment project by President Muhammadu Buhari, after he initially backed it.

The party’s ongoing congresses have witnessed large-scale crises in more than two-thirds of the states, with as much as 24 state chapters conducting parallel congresses for both ward and local government.

Confirming the Lalong panel’s central recommendation, the National Legal Adviser to the party, Muiz Banire, told Sunday Tribune that mischief and selfishness were mainly responsible for the derelict situation the party found itself today.

According to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, “The Lalong Committee validated my own legal advisory then. In the first instance, there was nothing like extension of tenure, but out of mischief, those mischief makers also decided for their own convenience and propaganda to use the word “extend.”

“Nobody ever extended the tenure by one day. All that was resolved was that a Caretaker Committee should be set up pending the conclusion of all the general election. But they twisted it and the same thing they took to President Buhari.

“So, when the matter was referred to the technical committee consisting of many senior advocates that were not even politicians from outside and Lalong who happens to be a lawyer had to chair the committee and they looked at all I did, they decided that the position was unassailable.”

When asked what was his position, he said he advised the party that, given the reality of the devastating effects of having conflict-prone congresses in an election circle, the acting appointment was in order.

“That was my position; it was unassailable and the position represents the position of the law and in order not to make some people look bad, they now said that a trial should be given to congress and if it fails, we will revert back to the caretaker,” he revealed.

When asked if it was almost certain that the party would revert to the last resort, considering the mess the congresses had become, Banire said: “I don’t know, honestly, if they are likely to revert to that. But you and I are witnesses to what is going on all over the country vis-a-vis the party.”

Probing into the undercurrents that turned the party upside down, Banire,  who had been in his role for about eight years, spanning three political platforms, said: “My view is that some people who probably out of mischief or ignorance of the law misled President Buhari.

“Those people know themselves and honestly, I know that they must be behind it. The president was at the meeting where we took the decision in the first instance. So, coming back again and of course, the president did indicate that he was advised by some people and I believe that what those people told him must either be out of ignorance of the position of the law or relatively out of mischief.

“The problem is that when you give suggestions and people, for selfish reasons and out of mischief at times, try to put it aside, the result that we are experiencing or witnessing now, is what you get.

“Those who are experienced in this game would know that there is hardly anyway you can run a congress that will be rancour-free and not endanger the goal or the objective of your party when it is close to the general election. It is never advisable. The good news is that hiding under the constitutional provision of the APC and also in the interpretation already given to it in the case of Sheriff and PDP, you have a way of protecting yourself strategically.

“But in the wisdom of some people, they felt it (congress) is the way to go and I know that as of now, they should be happier that they have killed not fewer than 15 people, apart from other confusion around. If that was their goal and they have achieved it, we appreciate it and leave them to God,” he said.