Oshiomhole In Fresh Trouble As APC Stakeholders Deny Him Membership

Despite ongoing effort to reconcile warring factions in the All Progressive Congress, APC, the Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, VON, Chief Osita Okechukwu, on Friday, insisted that the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, is no longer a valid member of the party.

Okechukwu, while reacting to the decision of the Court of Appeal in Abuja to indefinitely adjourn hearing on the appeal Oshiomhole lodged to challenge the High Court order that suspended him from office as the National Chairman of the APC, said he was sceptic that the current peace overtures would restore normalcy in the party.

According to the VON DG: “Without prejudice to the ongoing trial, whether the Appeal Court sat today or not, it must hold session some day, and the main issue remains whether a man suspended by his ward executive can preside over same association?

Recall that on Wednesday, March 4, 2020, Justice Danlami Senchi of the Federal High Court, Abuja suspended the former governor of Edo state, asking him to stop parading himself as the party chairman.

The judge, who based his judgement on the November 2, 2019 resolution of the Ward 10, Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, where Oshiomhole comes from, ruled that he could not continue to hold the position of the APC National Chairman after his ward had suspended him.

Oshiomhole’s suspension thereafter, became a controversial subject as another court of equal jurisdiction, the Federal High Court in Kano voided his suspension within 24 hours.

Justice Lewis Allagoa on Thursday, March 5, 2020, issued an interim order halting the suspension on the ground that the “purported resolution of the Ward 10, Etsako West Local Government Area, Edo State APC,” suspending the former labour leader as a member of the APC was of no effect.

Reacting to his suspension, Oshiomhole accused a serving minister and some governors of being behind his travails.

While addressing journalists after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday March 5, 2020, the suspended party chairman said, the governors behind his suspension were those eyeing the presidential seat in 2023.

“They are the ones who will plot how do we get rid of him because they want to be president in 2023 even when their hold on their state at the moment is doubtful if they were to go for referendum in terms of their approval rating.

“But you see, whatever you do, those who want to fight you will fight you. But I know that my tenure will be defined by God not by man,” he said.