New Telegraph

APC crisis: More confusion as Giadom, Eta jostle for power

More confusion crept into the leadership crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday as two factional leaders jostled for control of the machinery of power in the party. While one of the claimants to the Acting National Chairmanship position, Chief Victor Giadom announced that the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow, Chief Hilliard Eta, his rival overruled him, declaring that he had no locus standi to convene the meeting.

The open power tussle came a day after some governors elected on the platform of the party met with President Muhammad Buhari and resolved to intervene in the crisis that has split the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. Giadom, who issued the notice of the NEC meeting yesterday, said it would hold at the Aso Rock, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He disclosed that the meeting would hold by virtual means in line with the guidelines of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on social distancing in order to check further spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. According to him, the meeting which had the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari was being convened to discuss the ongoing crisis as well as other pending issues earlier scheduled for deliberation before the aborted NEC meeting in March. The notice of meeting issued by Giadom read: “Having been duly authorized by Court Order to act as National Chairman of our great party and to preside over all meetings of the NWC and NEC, I hereby and with the consent of the President Muhammadu Buhari, (who is the leader of our Party) reconvene the NEC meeting that was earlier billed to hold on the 17th of March, 2020, but was postponed.

The reconvened meeting shall hold on Thursday, June 25th, 2020. “In keeping strictly to the COVID-19 Guidelines, the postponed NEC shall hold by virtual means. The codes would be sent by text to the phone numbers of all NEC members. Those to be physically present at the State House, Abuja, would also be communicated.” But in a swift, Eta urged members to discountenance the notice of meeting as Giadom was no longer a member of the APC, having been suspended by the Rivers State Chapter of the party. Eta, who spoke after receiving the report of the party’s governorship primaries in Edo State, said it was wrong to address him (Eta) as a factional Acting National chairman because Giadom, who was laying claims to the position lacked the locus standi to preside over the affairs of the party.

Eta said: “I sit here on behalf of distinguished Senator Abiola Ajimobi as the acting Chairman of this party. If Victor Giadom is arranging a NEC, I believe that it is your responsibility as a member of the fourth estate of the realm to investigate his locus to find out whether he has the legal, the constitutional backing to be able to call a NEC meeting.”

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