Ondo APC crisis: Atiku backs Tinubu on due process

FORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar has asked the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to ensure that the affairs of the party are carried out in line with the rule of law.

In a message from his Media Office on Wednesday in Abuja, he said that the party needed to manage the fallout of the governorship primaries in Ondo state with a recourse to the rule of law.

He said the APC must promote the rule of law and due processadding that it was wrong for the party to deviate from its own rules.

Atiku further said that the leadership of the party could only ensure peace and unity in the party if it lived by the rules of internal democracy and respect for democratic consensus, adding: “You cannot break your own rules without creating problems.”

He further stated that the party was supposed to be an impartial entity in the arbitration of crisis among its members at every election.

The former vice president also contended that since the APC had found veritable reasons to review the outcome of the Ondo State gubernatorial primary, having been able to establish “valid grounds” to cancel the election, the leadership of the party should not have reasons to deviate from that decision.

He insisted that doing so would amount to a “negation of due process and an unfashionable hollow in democratic best practices.”

He submitted: “It was wrong for the APC to have set aside a resolution it had reached aimed at resolving the crisis in our party in Ondo State. It is a recipe for acrimony and division.”

Atiku warned that pretending that a problem didn’t exist as far as the Ondo primary issue was concerned would not make the problem go away, urging the leadership of the party to do a soul searching and address the problems.

He said that the APC leadership must be guided by respect for the rules, fairness, equity, neutrality and respect for democratic consensus.

He urged aggrieved party members to exercise restraint in seeking

redress to the crisis, while advocating that the party leaders must restore confidence and retrace their steps for the benefit of all.