A fresh crisis is looming in the All Progressives Congress (APC), following renewed calls for an emergency National Executive Council meeting to address a brewing constitutional crisis.

Pioneer Deputy National Auditor of the APC, Captain Muhammad Jibrin, in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, called for the emergency NEC meeting to address constitutional breaches with respect to the scheduled Edo State governorship primary.

Jibrin urged President Muhammadu Buhari, as well as the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, to save the party from a looming disaster.

He said,

The NEC is the only constitutional body that has the final say on the issues (at hand).

This means that to roll back the creeping improprieties and lawlessness, NEC should summon an emergency meeting and thrash out the issues once and for all.

Jibrin said the party’s NEC can avoid a repeat of the Zamfara, Rivers and Bauchi states 2019 scenarios if it acted immediately because the issues at stake were constitutional.

The party chieftain said,

The contemplation of the drafters of the APC constitution is that direct primary means allowing all card-carrying party members to vote in a primary election.

However, there are two issues that unless addressed, the whole exercise will be subjected to abuse and manipulation.

First, not every party member can vote or be voted for. Article 9.3 (i) states that: ’Only fully registered and financially up-to-date members of the party shall have the right to vote and be voted for into any of the elective positions, subject to the provisions made for such elections pursuant to this constitution or other laws or regulations.

Consequently, non-financial members shall not enjoy the above rights. How do you verify, under this situation, who is a financial member or not?

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.