All Progressives Congress (APC), Lagos State chapter, has warned that none of its members should institute any legal action against the Governor Mai Mala Bunni-led National Caretaker Committee (NCC) of the party, without having sought to initiate internal conflict resolution processes to resolve the dispute, threatening that doing so would attract sanctions, “which may include suspension or expulsion.”
Chairman of the party, Alhaji Babatunde Balogun, gave this stern warning, on Saturday, in a statement he made available to newsmen, saying the party’s attention had been drawn to a report in a national daily that a purported APC member in the state had instituted a case at a Federal High Court, against the party’s National Caretaker Committee.
Balogun, while expressing the view that the person who instituted the legal action could not be a bonafide APC member in Lagos State, however, said that the party was resolved to investigate the matter, just as he reiterated that Lagos APC had long decided that no party member should file a court action against the Buni- led NCC of the party.
“We believe the person who instituted the suit is not a member of our party because it is highly doubtful that a bonafide member of the APC in Lagos in good standing would initiate such an action; we will, however, investigate the matter.
“Here, I want to reiterate the stance of the APC in Lagos. No party member should file a court action regarding the recent National Executive Committee meeting of the party in Abuja particularly if that person has not even sought to initiate internal conflict resolution processes to resolve any dispute they may have with the NEC decisions,” the party chairman said.
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According to him, filing any such legal action is clearly against the spirit and letter of the party constitution, which prohibits legal action before a member exhausts all internal resolution mechanisms. “Our resolve against institution of any court case by any member is in consonance with the constitution of the party.”
Balogun warned that the party in the state would not a blind eye to the flouting of the constitution in this manner, noting that APC in the state was trying to restore order and decorum to the fold “and thus no member should seek to sow confusion.
“Any party member involved in the institution of any such case should withdraw the case from court forthwith. Failure to do so will subject that party member to sanctions enumerated in the constitution, which may include suspension or expulsion,” he warned.
“No party can flourish when members engage in instituting frivolous court cases for the sole purpose of causing disunity and turmoil. This is an act of gross indiscipline which cannot be sustained and which we will not allow,” he further warned.
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