A pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has berated the All Progressives Congress (APC) for expelling its Vice Chairman (North West), Alhaji Inuwa Abdul-Kadir (SAN).

It noted that such illegal action adopted by the national hierarchy of the ruling party in Nigeria without due respect for a subsisting action before a competent court of law on the same subject matter is a direct affront to the avowed respect for rule of law as espoused by President Muhammadu Buhari in almost all his public speeches.

HURIWA specifically appeals to President Buhari to call his national party officials to order and to stay action on any petition against Alhaji Abdulkadir who is a life member of the Nigerian body of benchers and one of the few most reputable nationalists in politics in the country, pending the determination of the pending and subsisting court case on the same subject matter.

The rights group reminded the National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, that as a one-time unionist and a two term Governor who swore an oath to protect the sanctity of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 (as amended), he must be weary of associating himself with treacherous, anti-democratic and unconstitutional actions such as the one manifested in the media announcement from his governing board of the ruling APC which purportedly expelled Alhaji Abdulkadir (SAN).

HURIWA reminded the APC that “he who goes to equity must go with clean hands” just as the rights group asked the officials not to throw stones because they too live in glass house meaning that since they are the officials charged with ensuring that the principle of rule of law which takes preeminence at all times, they must not therefore be seen dancing naked in the public square by undermining the supremacy of the Constitution.

In a statement made available to the media, HURIWA challenged the national leadership of the APC to show good example as a party that respects the tenets of the principle of the rule of law in the sense that no adversarial action capable of undermining the sacredness of the constitution should be linked to the party just as the stating that the reported expulsion or suspension of the Vice Chairman of the party and a former Sokoto State Attorney General and a former federal cabinet minister, without fair hearing offends the fundamental kernel of the sanctity of the principle of rule of law.

The rights group also believes that the action of the party amounts to disobedience of the judicial powers of the federation clothed on the courts of competent jurisdiction, including the Sokoto High Court of Justice which is currently handling a legal challenge mounted by Alhaji Abdulkadir questioning the validity of the petition originated from the Sokoto State chapter of the ruling party upon which the a section of the national leadership of the APC relied on to reach the pre-determined but altogether unconstitutional conclusion is a nullity having regards to section 1(1) of the Nigerian constitution.

HURIWA it will today, Monday July 22, send a petition to the President Muhammadu Buhari and the office of the Attorney General of the Federation to urge them to uphold the sanctity of the constitution and stop the overzealous section of the executives of APC at the national level from committing an outrageous rape of the grund norm and the supreme law of the constitution by compelling them to reverse with immediate effect the kangaroo decision to expel Alhaji Abdulkadir even whilst a court matter is ongoing on the same theme.

HURIWA disputed the claim that the party organs in Sokoto State had earlier validly expelled Alhaji Abdulkadir and passed on their recommendation to the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) for ratification just as it faulted the party’s Publicity Secretary who stated that the decision to uphold the actions of the Sokoto APC organs was taken at a meeting of the NWC held on Thursday.

The rights group said it was unbecoming of some educated persons to pretend not to know that once a matter is before a competent court of law you can’t take any action that is targeted at foisting a fait accompli on the court because Nigeria as a country that depends on the viability of the constitution and the laws to exist as a constitutional democracy cannot at the same time be seen to be dominated by officials who have scant regards for the constitution and the laws of the Federation of Nigeria.

HURIWA said the so-called expulsion of Abdulkadir remains a nullity because it was erected on illegality even as the rights group said whatever is built on illegality will inevitably collapse like a pack of cards when subjected to the test of legal validity and sustainability.

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