Raphael Ede, Enugu
A fresh crisis is brewing in the All Progressives Congress as Secretary of Forum of States Chairmen of APC, Dr. Ben Nwoye, has said that going by provisions of the party’s Constitution, APC members who took the party to court over extensions of leadership of the party have been expelled from the party.
Nwoye, who also is the Enugu State Chairman of APC, stated this, on Monday, at a press briefing.
According to him, the chairmen were dumbfounded to learn that some of the Forum’s members went to court after it had accepted extension of tenures for the party executives nationwide.
In the words of Nwoye, “We (APC states Chairmen) agreed on tenure extensions because this is election year and that it will harm the party if you go into extensive convention.
“The 37 Chairmen agreed on the extension because we are all aware of different crises in the country and we did not want to compound the crises and so we passed votes of confidence on President Buhari and on Tinubu’s reconciliation committee.
“Only four voted against the decision but that could not override the majority votes. They did not petition to the party’s NEC nor the Tinubu committee and they now went to court.
“However, article 21 (a) of our party Constitution recommends automatic expulsion for member that take the party to court without exhausting all available internal settlement measures.
“The provision is self-executory and does not need a committee to pronounce the expulsion on them. But once they withdraw the action, they automatically regain their memberships.”
Nwoye who said he suspects that those who went to court were being used by the emerging third force and the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to destabilize the APC.