A group of 10 All Progressives Congress local government chairmen in Zamfara State have filed a case before the Federal High Court, Gusau challenging their recent dissolution by the National Caretaker Chairman of the party, Alhaji Mai-Mala Buni.
A copy of the suit, filed on July 12, was obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Gusau.
NAN reports that Buni, the Chairman of APC’s Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee and Yobe State Governor, had on June 29 announced the dissolution of all the party’s leadership structure in Zamfara State, while receiving Governor Bello Matawalle into the APC from the Peoples Democratic Party.
The plaintiffs, Alhaji Abdulaziz Danmaliki and nine others, applied to the court on the matter through D. C. Enwelum (SAN) of Bello Umar & Co Legal Practitioners and Notary Public of Zamfara State situated in Gusau.
The suit has Buni as first defendant, APC as second defendant and the Independent National Electoral Commission as third defendant.
The plaintiffs want the court to determine whether the CECPC chairman had the right to dissolve them and hand over the affairs of the party, and whether the INEC can lawfully accept and deal with any other officer of the party in the state other than them.
They asked the court to declare as “mere oral announcement, of the dissolution, on the June 29, as illegal and a void act contrary to Article 14.1 (lll), (V) and (Vlll) of the party’s constitution.”
They are also affirming that the dissolution does not extinguish the legal rights of the plaintiffs and that the first defendant lacks the right to remove the plaintiffs who were duly appointed by the National Secretariat of the party on December 8, 2020.
They submitted that the June 29 announcement dissolving all executives and party structures in the state is null, void and of no effect, as well as seeking the court to order the third defendant (INEC) not to accept or deal with any other state officer other than the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs also urged the court to set aside and nullify the announcement made by the first defendant dissolving the executives and handing over affairs of the party to Matawalle as the party leader.
They also prayed the court to order that the appointment of the plaintiffs subsists.
They appealed to the court to restrain the first and second defendants from disrupting their tenure of office pending the conduct of congresses at all levels and also restrain the third defendant from recognising or dealing with other members.
Enwelum submitted that the defendants should respond within 30 days of receipt of the summon from the July 12, without which “proceedings may be taken as the presiding judge may think just and expedient.”
NAN further reports that crisis began in the APC following the June 29 defection of Matawalle from the PDP to the APC, during which the party’s CECPC Chairman dissolved all the state executive structures and announced the governor as the new leader of the party.
This development, however, did not go down well with some stakeholders.
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