The determination to sustain the political cleavage, it was gathered yesterday, was being fuelled by lawmakers in the R-APC who it was gathered, desire to exploit constitutional provisions on a division to sustain their seats in the federal and state assemblies.
Meanwhile, the mainstream APC, yesterday, formally disavowed the split and the leaders of the R-APC as it said it had launched an investigation into the membership status of the leaders whose action it labelled as mischievous and uncalled for.
In an apparent demonstration of his rejection of further dialogue, one of the key leaders of the R-APC, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, the immediate past governor of Kano State, yesterday left the country.
His spokesperson, Hajia Binta Spikin, nevertheless said it was too late for further talks with the APC, saying the party which failed in its campaign promises, including selling petrol at N45 per litre, would not fulfil any fresh promise arising from negotiations.
“Oh no, it is a bit late, it is a bit late. The party has had its so called-convention, it has deviated from the original intentions why it was brought to being, so there is nothing that remains with the mainstream APC.
“I don’t know about the promises Comrade Oshiomhole keeps making. He keeps promising he will do this, he would do that, but it’s just promises like the promises the APC gave in the run-up to the 2015 general election.
‘’Remember APC promised that petrol would be sold at N45 per litre; it has not fulfilled those promises, so what makes this promise different from all the other promises,” Hajia Spikin said over the telephone yesterday.
National Publicity Secretary of the R-APC, Prince Kassim Afegbua, on his part equally asserted the determination of the group to forge ahead with their move, saying the last convention of the APC was constitutionally flawed.
“That convention has a constitutional flaw, so they are the ones that should be coming to us for peace,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, deputy national chairman, South of the R-APC, Chief Sam Nkire, said yesterday that the APC was the architect of its present misfortune and was, therefore, now stewing in its blood.
Chief Nkire, in a statement in Abuja, also said that poor reward system, high-handedness, and undemocratic habits were some of the reasons members would continue to leave the party in droves, if there was no change.
According to Chief Nkire, the poor treatment meted out to him by the “powers that be” in the party he joined at inception, invested in and helped achieve electoral success, evokes pity by Nigerians, especially the people of the Southeast and Igbo in general.
The Abia State-born political stalwart predicted that it would not be long before the time-bomb finally explodes in the faces of those who believe that “all is fair in politics as in war.”
Chief Nkire also said he was unsure Comrade Oshiomhole’s medicine could heal the wounds inflicted on the bodies and souls of millions of once committed party members of the APC.
Vanguard gathered yesterday that the R-APC leaders would sustain the division as a way of providing legal cover for their associates in the federal and state legislative houses for them to defect to other parties ahead of the forthcoming general election.
Sections 68(1) (109(1)) of the 1999 Constitution, states that; “A member of the Senate or House of Representatives (House of Assembly) shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if-
“(g) Being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that house was elected:
“Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member, or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”
Meanwhile, the party in its first major pronouncement since the formal break on Wednesday, disavowed the action of the leaders of the R-APC as it said it was launching an investigation to determine the membership status of the R-APC leaders and whether the provisions of the party’s constitution had been breached and by who.
APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi in a statement made available to Vanguard said: “On Wednesday, July 4, 2018, a group of individuals announced itself as ‘Reformed All Progressives Congress (APC)’ at a press conference held in Abuja. By their actions, this group has attempted to create the impression that our party is factionalised. This is not true.
“The All Progressives Congress, APC, wishes to affirm that there is no faction in our party and declares the action by these individuals as mischievous and ill-advised.
“Having failed to scuttle the National Convention as was their original plan, they now resort to this subterfuge as a way of achieving the pre-determined end of causing confusion.
“We doubt that these individuals parading as leaders of the so-called faction are actual members of our party. We are currently investigating their true membership status within the party.
“While we shall continue to monitor developments in this respect; we will not hesitate to take lawful actions to defend the unity of our party and protect the sanctity of its identity.
‘’We are currently reviewing the action of this so-called faction in order to determine if any aspect of the party’s constitution has been breached with the connivance of any of our members.
“For those members who have genuine grievances, we want to assure them of the commitment of the new leadership of the party to address those grievances as quickly as possible in a manner that ensures that justice is done to all.”
Meanwhile, Comrade Oshiomhole yesterday continued on his troubleshooting shuttles with a closed-door session with the party caucus in the House of Representatives.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, who led the legislators to the caucus meeting, told the party chairman that it was only by justice and equity the party would be able to silence the voices of dissent and opposition.
‘No perfect relationship’
While noting that no human relationship could be expected to be perfect, he said: “Our only expectation is the issue of justice, and justice is indivisible. What is justice to the executive should be justice to the legislature and it should be justice to the judiciary.
“What is justice to the President and the Vice President should be justice to the Governor, and it has to be justice for the members of the National Assembly because you can’t divide justice. Once you begin to divide justice, you don’t have justice.
“Once we are able to get these things in their proper perspectives to some extent, we will be able to silence the voices of dissent within the party. We have problems in the party, but we mustn’t allow our problems to define us rather we should define our problems as a party.”
On his part, Comrade Oshiomhole told the MPs that “every person matters in our party because all party members voluntarily moved from various political platforms, and dissolved those platforms in order to give birth to the All Progressives Congress.”
He said the idea of delivering the greater good for the greater number of Nigerian citizens was what binds the APC together and “defines us in spite of the teething problems, we were bound to experience that every new organisation goes through.”
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