Seeks Dissolution of Buni Committee, Nullification of Actions
About 100 aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), have sued the Party asking that the Buni- led 13-member caretaker committee be dissolved and all its actions quashed.
The case was filed by their lawyer, Mr Samuel E. Irabor at the Federal High Court, Abuja on Wednesday, 18th August, 2021.
It will be recalled that the matter of the legal status of the APC Caretaker/ Emergency Convention Planning Committee and legality of its actions/ decisions have been generating a lot of controversy and causing divisions within the party in recent times.
Others joined as co-defendants in the originating summon registered as Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/938/2021, include the Chairman of the committee Mai Mala Buni, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Some of the prayers of the Aggrieved members include:
“That the 13 members Caretaker Committee falls short of the constitutionally required 24 members spread across not less than two-third of the 36 States and the FCT for any governing body of a political party, whether substantive or acting, as stipulated under Section 223(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as altered).
“That the headship of the Caretaker Committee by a sitting Governor holding dual executive offices is prohibited by Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution and Article 17(4) of the APC Constitution, 2014 (as amended)
” That by Article 13(4)(xvi) of the APC Constitution, 2014 (as amended) only the National Working Committee rather than the NEC of the party can constitute a Caretaker Committee in whatever form, nature or guise.
“That the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, who administered oath of office on Gov. Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State as purported Caretaker Chairman lacks the powers to do so under any provision of the APC Constitution, 2014 (as amended) as he is neither a member of the National Working Committee or even a member of the NEC of the APC.
It is clear by this action that all efforts by Buni and his team to defuse tension including inviting legal luminaries to speak on the matter and to explain the Supreme Court’s recent decision while ruling in the matter brought by the PDP candidate in the Ondo State gubernatorial elections contest, have not paid off.
Even the threat by the Secretary to the Committee, Senator John Akpanudoedehe at a recent press briefing that appropriate party laws will be invoked to deal with members who go to court, has been ignored going by this action.