A member of the All Progressives Congress in Imo State, Okere Uzochukwu, on Friday, approached a Federal High Court in Abuja challenging the extension of the tenure of members of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party by one year.

The tenure of the leadership of the ruling party at the state, local government and ward levels was also extended by one year by the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party on February 27, 2018.

The plaintiff, who said he was an aspirant to the state chairmanship position of the party in Imo State, contended in the suit marked, FHC /ABJ/ CS/219/ 2018, that the tenure extension was undemocratic and violated the provisions of the constitution, the Electoral Act and the constitution of the APC.

The APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission are the first and second respondents in the case.

He argued through Nnamdi Okere, his lawyer, that the extension of the tenure of the officials of the party at various levels was “ the primary function and responsibility of the national convention ” by virtue of the provisions of Article 13 and 13 (3 ) (ii) of the constitution of the APC 2014 (as amended).

He stressed that the tenure extension was unconstitutional and undemocratic since the national convention did not hold.

The plaintiff urged the court to hold that the tenure extension for the NWC, the state working committees as well as the local government and ward executive committees of the party commencing from June 2018 to June 2019 “is illegal, unconstitutional , null and void and of no effect.”

He urged the court to compel the incumbent John Odigie – Oyegun- led NWC and others to vacate their respective offices with effect from June 1, 2018 , when they would have completed their four-year tenure.

Meanwhile, the plaintiff also sought an order compelling INEC “reject, cease to recognise and stop dealing with or having official communications with the Odigie -Oyegun- led National Working Committee” and others effective from effective from June 1 , 2018, “for having spent the constitutionally allowed tenure of office.”

He sought an order declaring that he, as a registered and card-carrying member of the party, “has been denied the right to aspire and contest the Imo State Chairmanship of the All Progressives Congress, a position he is aspiring and canvassing for and has spent enormous resources, to warrant and justify the extant action.”

http://www.mcebisco.com.ng/2018/03/tenure-extension-apc-member-drags-party.html

Good move!

Almost all political parties in Nigeria lacks internal democracy and that is why most of them are perpetually in crisis. If your constitution says elected party officials should serve for 4 years, why come up with various useless excuses to extend their tenure? If they've done very well to the admiration of party members, let them contest again at the parry convention instead of controversially extending their tenures through fiat. The APC NWC will now have to contend with court cases and problem of illegitimacy for the next one year.

seunmsg:
Almost all political parties in Nigeria lacks internal democracy and that is why most of them are perpetually in crisis. If your constitution says elected party officials should serve for 4 years, why come up with various useless excuses to extend their tenure? If they've done very well to the admiration of party members, let them contest again at the parry convention instead of controversially extending their tenures through fiat. The APC NWC will now have to contend with court cases and problem of illegitimacy for the next one year.

I couldn't have said it better.

There really is no good excuse why new members cannot be elected. All the reasons givens are really not tenable.

It's just a strategy for the President to keep some particular set of people in control of part affairs till the 2019 election cones. To go straight to the point, it's a strategy to outwit the Tinubu faction of APC.

Like you said, the currently serving elected members have the overwhelming support of party members, do a quick convention and election

They continue violating the party constitution with outright impunity, I don't understand why these people are behaving like this.


Why extend the party executives tenure when Tinubu's reconciliation work has not concluded? I'm still triying to understand the rationale behind that

seunmsg:
Almost all political parties in Nigeria lacks internal democracy and that is why most of them are perpetually in crisis. If your constitution says elected party officials should serve for 4 years, why come up with various useless excuses to extend their tenure? If they've done very well to the admiration of party members, let them contest again at the parry convention instead of controversially extending their tenures through fiat. The APC NWC will now have to contend with court cases and problem of illegitimacy for the next one year.

Tinubu has sent seun to come spit out this thrash

CROWNWEALTH019:

[s]Tinubu has sent seun to come spit out this thrash [/s]

There is no internal democracy in APC, PDP and other political parties in Nigeria.