The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership billowed at the weekend, as the Deputy National Chairman (North) of the party, Senator Lawan Shuaibu, has declined to honour the invitation sent to him by the five-man disciplinary committee set up by the party’s National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Senator Shuaibu, in a recent letter addressed to Comrade Oshiomhole, dated May 27 and entitled; “APC: Its Fortunes Vs Misfortunes: Time to Act,” had accused the former Edo State governor of running the party without recourse to other members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).

Senator Shuaibu pointed fingers of scorn at Comrade Oshiomhole over the crises and attendant litigation that trailed the conduct of the party’s primaries and, particularly, blamed the former for the recent misfortune that befell the APC in Zamfara State, demanding for Oshiomhole’s resignation.

Responding to the letter addressed to him by the Deputy National Chairman (South), Chief Niyi Adebayo, who, incidentally, is the chairman of the disciplinary committee, Senator Shuaibu noted that there was no provision for the committee in the party’s constitution, maintaining that only the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party could reprimand him for any infraction.

He also argued that given the allegations he raised against Oshiomhole, it would be wrong for him to set up a disciplinary committee, as he noted that the former Edo State governor could not be a judge in his own case.

“I don’t know from where the NWC derived the power of discipline. The APC Constitution, in Article 21, states that such power shall only be exercised by the party through the respective executive committees of the party at all levels.

“I am not a lawyer, but I have been in the political party system for about a decade now to be able to know that every decision of the party shall be in line with what its constitution stipulates.

“When I served as a national secretary, my own national chairman would insist that I work with the national legal adviser for advice on every issue, before any decision was arrived at.

“Given that the NWC has the power, how can the chairman preside over a meeting in which discussions that border on allegations against him are discussed? Let me repeat, as in my letter to the chairman, you can’t be a judge in your own case; and to even say he was seated there to accept a vote of confidence as well as preside over setting up a committee to punish the member that accused him.

“Those eminent leaders of the APC had fairness on their minds on matters of discipline and disciplinary procedures, when they drafted the constitution. They entrusted the matter of discipline in the party to the larger executive committees, and not a group of few members of the party some of who might probably be culpable in some instances,” the letter read.

Shuaibu said further; “Otunba, my honest advice to you is, since you are the closest NWC member to the chairman, in order not to drive the party into the mud, always insist on following due process of law in whatever he wants to commit the party to.” (Sunday Tribune)

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