There is anger within the camp of a former Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, following the dissolution of the Rivers State Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) led by Abdullahi Ganduje.
It was gathered that Ganduje’s decision to go ahead and inaugurate a seven-man Caretaker Committee led by Chief Tony Okocha to berth a new APC in the state further unsettled the Amaechi’s camp.
The chairman of the state executive committee, Chief Emeka Beke, immediately rejected the move insisting that nobody could dissolve an elected committee on the pages of newspapers or on television.
Also, the committee in a statement issued by the state Publicity Secretary, Darlington Nwauju, described the dissolution as extra-constitutional.
He said: “The issued purported dissolution of the State Executives of the APC in Rivers State is extra-constitutional and falls flat in the face of sound crisis management and peacebuilding.
“The NWC cannot without approval by the NEC take such extreme measures as dissolve duly elected executives of the party or grant waivers for any individual to occupy positions who is not qualified under our Constitution to do so.
“Leaving our party in the hands of political undertakers is too much of a risk for all progressive minded individuals in Rivers State”.
But the sacked committee on Friday rushed to the court to stop the inauguration of a technical committee for Rivers APC through a suit filed by one Peter Onochukwu said to be representing members of the Rivers Executive Committee.
The suit filed at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in the Abuja Judicial Division had Ganduje, Senator Surajudeen Basiru, Chief Tony Okocha, Eric Nwibani, the Nigeria Police Force, the Inspector-General of Police and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as defendants/respondents.
The sacked exco in an ex parte application is seeking an order of interim injunction restraining the defendants/respondents from taking any steps whatsoever that is capable of affecting, destroying, or distorting the res in this matter, which is the performance of the functions and duties of the claimant/applicant as an elected official of the state executive committee of APC Rivers State pending the determination of the motion on notice.