MEET FRANK OSHANUGOR
By Frank Oshanugor
The disquiet in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may soon get to a boiling point as the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Festus Keyamo and former Governorship candidate of APC in Delta State, Great Ovedje Ogboru have perfected plans to sack the Mai-Mala Buni led Caretaker Committee of the party.
AtlanticNewsonline gathered that the duo have allegedly engaged a retinue of Lawyers to wage legal war against the APC Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) using sacked members of Delta State APC Caretaker Committee to perfect their plan.
The plot according to a group that prides itself as the Progressives Movement Against Anti-party Activities was uncovered following the filing of a suit before Delta State High Court sitting in Asaba. The suit among other things is seeking to sack the Party Caretaker Committee under the leadership of the Executive Governor of Yobe State, Mai-Mala Buni from office based on the judgement of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in a recently decided case of Jegede vs Akeredolu.
Claimants in the case before the Asaba court are Elvis Ayomanor, Chidi Okonji, Tosan Awani, Amorighoye Sunny Mene, Janet Oyubu, Christopher Agali, Felix Ogbotor Okpako And Denbo Denbofa.
It would be recalled that just few days ago, precisely on Sunday, the 22nd of August, 2021, the group led by Nurudeen Komolafe had in its address to the press held at Grand Hotel, Asaba, Delta State, raised alarm regarding the anti-party activities of the Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Mr. Festus Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
Keyamo had reportedly directed his media aide, one MC Paul; an aspirant who lost in the APC Isoko South Constituency 1 primaries to Dr. Ogaga Ifowodo, to run for the bye election under the ticket of Social Democratic Party (SDP), a move which is viewed as a ploy to ensure that the APC loses the forthcoming bye election fixed for 11th September, 2021, through vote splitting.
Chairman of the group, Nurudeen Komolafe had during press briefing, in company of other executives of the socio-political group, accused Keyamo and Ogboru of orchestrating the institution of the suit seeking to sack the Buni- led CECPC from office and declaring all its actions and activities, particularly the conduct of the just concluded ward congresses as illegal, null and void.
Displaying copies of the court processes which were made available to news men in Asaba, the Nurudeen Komolafe-led group, gave the names of the claimants of the case as listed earlier in this story. The group stated further that the above claimants, were all former members of the State Executive Committee that was dissolved by National Executive Committee (NEC) on 25th June, 2020.
Chairman of the group stated further that the claimants who are not members of the present State Caretaker Committee led by the State Chairman Prophet Jones Ode Erue, “are well known political acolytes, stooges and supporters of the Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo and Chief Great Ogboru.”
The group drew the attention of members of the press corps to an earlier press release published in the Vanguard Newspaper of 6th August, 2021 on page 28, by these anti-party agents, calling for the cancellation of the Party’s congresses in Delta State, despite the fact that both Keyamo and Ogboru had earlier directed their supporters to boycott the congress.
Komolafe-led group still accusing Festus Keyamo, disclosed further that the claims in the case was based on the legal opinion the Minister gave in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment in Jegede v Akeredolu, calling for the sack of the Buni-led CECPC and stating, that “having failed in his initial inglorious attempt to remove the CECPC from office, has now resorted to more desperate measures to achieve his sinister motives by the filing of the case before the Delta State High Court, Asaba.”
Copies of the court processes, which were made available to members of the press by the chairman of the group, Nurudeen komolafe, showed that the case was filed by the Chambers of O.M. Atoyebi, SAN & Partners who was indeed hired and paid by Festus Keyamo. Nurudeen stated, that as part of the claims they are asking the court for, is a declaration that the appointment of Governors Mai-Mala Buni, Abubakar Sani Bello and Gboyega Isiaka Oyetola is illegal, null and void and contrary to the provisions of section 183 of the 1999 constitution.
Other claims in the case include the cancellation of the ward congresses in Delta State and to re-conduct fresh ones.
Briefing members of the press further, Komolafe said; “It has thus become compelling to alert Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari, our highly respected National Chairman, His Excellency, Hon. Mai-Mala Buni, the Governors of the APC and all critical stakeholders and true Progressives to the glaring, unabated and bound-to-fail legal war launched against the party and financed by the forces of darkness under the directive of the Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo and Chief Great Ogboru?, a demoted self-professed ‘People’s General’ using erstwhile members of the State Executive Committee, whose only mission is to destroy the largely recorded gains of the administration of the APC under the leadership of Mai-Mala Buni”.
Mr. Nurudeen Komolafe, thereafter called on the Party to take urgent steps in addressing the alarm raised, having regards to the most recently filed law suit “instigated by the Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo and Chief Great Ogboru at the Delta State High Court Asaba judicial division against the APC.”
Komolafe lamented a situation where “political appointees of our amiable President Muhammadu Buhari, are so hell bent in destroying the fortunes of the Party and stated that the latest action of Festus Keyamo, Great Ogboru and their co-travellers, is only a testimony of the spoiler role they have been used to playing overtime in connivance with their PDP cohorts.”
Komolafe, thereafter, reiterated his group’s earlier call on President Muhammadu Buhari, to sack any of his appointees that is engaged in anti-party activities, particularly in this challenging times for the Party to avoid any calamitous event capable of bringing the Party to its knees.
