By Gabriel Atumeyi
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo, has warned the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that Governor Mai Mala Buni Chairmanship of the party is not legally tenable in the event of new and imminent litigations.
In a leaked memo released on Wednesday, he said the cohesion and unity in the party is fragile and may be short-lived if it went ahead with its planned congresses under the status quo.
The planned congresses hold nationwide on Saturday.
According to Keyamo, by the Supreme Court judgement upholding Rotimi Akeredolu as Governor of Ondo State earlier on Wednesday, the APC escaped by slight margin potential defeat which he attributes to little technicality, which he said may not be applicable in subsequent court cases.
In the judgement, four out of the seven-member panel apex court dismissed the appeal of Eyitayo Jegede, the October 2020 Governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo, to remove Mr Akeredolu as the elected state governor.
In his reaction to this judgement, Mr Keyamo said the ruling party would have lost the case if Mr Jegede had joined Mr Buni in the suit.
“The little technical point that saved Gov Akeredolu was that Jegede failed to join Gov. Mai Mala Buni in the suit. Jegede was challenging the competence of Gov. Mai Mala Buni as a sitting Governor to run the affairs of the APC as Chairman of the Caretaker Committee.
“He contends that this is against Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution which states that a sitting Governor shall not, during the period when he holds office, hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever. In other words, had Buni been joined in the suit, the story may have been different today as we would have lost Ondo State to the PDP,” he noted.
Mr Keyamo said the technicality found therein in the judgement will encourage serial suits from APC members to question the legitimacy of the 13 month old interim leadership of Mr Buni to organise congresses and national convention.
The minister noted that the continuous leadership of the Yobe State governor was a breach of Article 17 of the APC Constitution, which make Buni unfit to oversee the impending congresses.
“The planned Congresses across the country slated for this weekend must immediately be suspended because it will be an exercise in futility as analysed above. The competence of Gov. Mai Mala Buni to organise the congresses has been called to question by the Supreme Court,” he said, calling for an urgent NEC meeting to appoint new interim leadership, anyone holding any executive position in any government establishment.
“Alternatively, the Board of Trustees of the Party, which includes Mr. President, can be activated to organise a National Convention in line with Article 13 of the APC Constitution where it is given such powers. Those powers can be delegated at the meeting to a Committee in line with the APC Constitution which will run the Party and plan the Convention. The new Exco can then plan for Congresses,” he added.
The Buni led Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) was appointed in June 2020 following the controversial removal of Adam Oshiomhole-led executives.
Other governors in the committee include Isiaka Oyetola and Sani Bello of both Osun and Niger State respectively representing the South-west and North-central zones.