The former national chairmanship Aspirant of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mohammad Saidu Etu, has sought interlocutory injunction to stop Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje from parading himself as party National Chairman.
Besides, Etsu has faulted the power of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the APC that certified the appointment of former governor of Kano State as the party National Chairman, which he considered as ultra vires to the provision of the party’s constitution.
In a motion on notice brought before the Federal High Court, FCT division, the plaintiff through his counsel J. O. Obono-Obla Esq, urged the court to restrict Ganduje from attending or presiding over the National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
In the interlocutory injunction, Etsu wanted the court to further restrain the former Kano state Governor from “carrying out the functions, powers, and responsibilities and those ancillary thereto, prescribed by Article 13 of the APC constitution, 2013 as (amended) pertaining to the office of the national chairman of the party, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive case”.
The matter under case suit no. CS/CV/2258/2024 also is challenging four defendants including Ganduje, APC, National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Working Committee (NWC).
According to the notice, Ganduje has been purporting to be the National Chairman of the APC contrary to the Constitution of the party since August, 2023 and illegally presiding over or carrying out powers vest on the National Chairman, in defiance of the APC constitution, rules, guidelines of electoral Act, 2022.
Etsu insisted that the prevailing action of Ganduje has elicit the party into a laughing stock among other opposition political parties in particular, thereby turning APC to an edifice of lawlessness.
Etsu is calling for immediate return to the zoning system of the position of the party chairman insisted that Ganduje who is clearly coming from the Northwestern zone is wrongly occupying the position reserved of candidate from the North Central zone.
The party Chieftain argued that NEC of the party had no modicum or scintilla of power to so appoint Ganduje as National Chairman when the party guiding principles clearly stipulated the procedure of nominating a replacement in any case of vacant into the position of the national chairman.
The plaintiff worried that APC NEC has violated the party constitution which provide a replacement of National Chairman, who is has not completed his tenure before exit, from the same zone that produced the exited National chairman.
Etsu argued that Senator Adamu’s resignation should ordinarily pave ways for a new National Chairman from the North Central who would be entrusted to complete the mandate of the former.
You may recall that two factions of the APC Exco from Ganduje ward in Dawakin Tofa had in separate decisions suspended Ganduje from being a member of the APC for his involvement in corruption charges, anti-party activities and nonpayment of party dues at his hometown.