APC To Expel All Members Who Protested Oyegun’s Tenure Extension

All members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who went to court over extension of tenure of its National Working Committee led by John Odigie-Oyegun have all been expelled, the party says.

Speaking during a press conference in Abuja on Monday, Dr. Ben Nwoye, APC Secretary, Forum of States Chairmen, said the party was shocked on hearing that some members had gone to court after accepting the tenure extension of the party leadership.

He stated that he suspected that the erring members were being manipulated by the emerging third force and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to destroy the APC

The APC at its National Executive Council meeting in February, extended the tenure of the NWC led by John Odigie-Oyegun by 12 months.

The tenure of the leadership of the party at the state, local government and ward levels was also extended by one year.

Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi state, had said the extension would take effect from June 30.

“Considering the time left for the party to conduct all the congresses and conventions and considering that our leader Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been charged with the responsibility of reconciling all aggrieved members of our party, we cannot afford to approach the general election with more disputes and crises,” Bello said at the end of the APC NEC meeting last month.

However, some aggrieved members had protested the decision, saying that that the tenure extension was unconstitutional and undemocratic since the national convention did not hold.

But Nwoye, who is also the Enugu State Chairman of APC, said, “However, Article 21 (a) of our party constitution recommends automatic expulsion for members that take the party to court without exhausting all available internal settlement measures.

“The provision is a self-executor and does not need a committee to pronounce the expulsion on them. But once they withdraw the action, they automatically regain their memberships.

“We (APC state chairmen) agreed on tenure extensions because this is election year and that it will harm the party if you go into extensive convention.

“The 37 chairmen agreed on the extension because we are all aware of different crises in the country and we did not want to compound the crises and so, we passed votes of confidence on President Buhari and on the Tinubu’s reconciliation committee.

“Only four voted against the decision but that could not override the majority votes. They did not petition to the party’s NEC or the Tinubu committee and they now went to court.”