Sunday Ani
Former general secretary of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Chief Frank Kokori, has described the suspension of the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole by a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court as very strange.
An FCT High Court, Abuja, gave an order restraining Oshiomhole from parading himself as the national chairman of the ruling APC pending the hearing and determination of a suit seeking for his permanent removal from office as the APC chairman.
In a telephone chat with the Daily Sun, Kokori expressed surprise at the development. He said: “I don’t understand what is going on in this country. How can a court suspend the national chairman? Were they the convention that elected Oshiomhole as the APC chairman? That is strange to me. It is like these judges are losing it. That’s all I can say because they never elected him.”
He insisted that only the National Executive Council of the party can remove Oshiomhole from office as the national chairman of the party.
“We elected him in a national convention. I am not a lawyer but it is strange to me as a labour leader. It is only the party’s National Executive Council that can remove Oshiomhole and not the court; that is my position,” he submitted.
For Ezekiel Izuogu, another chieftain of the party, Oshiomhole was responsible for his fate. He said: “I am surprised at the way Oshiomhole is going and I hope everything will be sorted out. I complained some years ago about his arrogance and that has affected everything he is doing. Look at what he is doing in Edo State. He is supposed to allow Godwin Obaseki to be the governor of Edo State, but instead, he is interfering. He wants to govern the state from Abuja. Things are not done that way. He is throwing his weight so often and I don’t like it. Let him have a change of attitude,” he said.
However, on whether the court has the power to suspend a national chairman of a political party, the former national president, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Malachy Ugwummadu, argued that if there is a credible cause of action within the jurisdiction of the High Court of the FCT, it can make an interim order pending the determination of the substantive suit.
“If the cause of action is within the jurisdiction of the court and there are grounds to grant an ex-parte application pending the hearing of the matter, that can be done,” he stated.
Looking at the political implication of the development, Ugwummadu said: “It’s implication obviously is that the ruling party under the chairmanship of Oshiomhole has just effectively courted trouble from every angle. And in the process, literally shooting itself in the leg and exposing the party to serious vulnerability, not just for the upcoming elections, but also for the cohesion and coordination needed to sustain victory and advance, which is even more amplified in Edo State where it has become very absurd to monitor what is going on. I wish it is not true because it will mean that Odigie Oyegun was even more stable, even if he was less aggressive,” he said.