The former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has criticized remarks by APC Deputy National Secretary Festus Fuanters, regarding the reinstatement of Emeka Beke as Rivers state’s party chairman.
There has been a conflagration of legal combat between the Emeka Beke-led State Working Committee, ousted by Abdullahi Ganduje over their perceived loyalty to the former Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi, and Tony Okocha, the Caretaker Committee Chairman, who is loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
The Beke-led NWC had gone to court to seek an interpretation of the APC constitution regarding their ouster as congressionally elected state working committee members whose four-year term is still subsisting.
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The court, in its judgment, bemoaned the party for acting ultra vires its constitution by dissolving a democratically elected leadership team and setting up a makeshift committee, even when there exists no proof of anti-party indulgences or any wrongdoing whatsoever by the Emeka Beke-led team.
The APC Deputy National Secretary was offended by the judgment reinstating Emeka Beke and his team.
During a press briefing last week, the party’s Deputy National Secretary said the court ruling “is not binding on the Party (APC).”
He said the party still recognized and worked with the erstwhile caretaker committee.
Eze, in a statement made available to the media on Saturday, said the confidence oozed by the Deputy National Secretary in his discourteous ululation points to the fact that the Ganduje-led National Working Committee of the APC is averse to democracy, the rule of law, and a proactive, independent judiciary. He further noted that they are now more aggressively committed than ever to destroying the APC and other democratic institutions within the polity with their abrasive tendencies.
The party chief noted with dismay that the Deputy National Secretary “presented himself as having better legal knowledge than the court, which did exhaustive legal work and displayed excellence and sound logical reasoning in its judgment.” Eze stressed that this arrogant display of barefaced ignorance casts doubt on his qualification as a lawyer.
Eze cautioned Ganduje and his cohorts to “be wary of inveighing the APC into a situation in which the party will be reckoned with as a group dissident to lawful orders and decisions of courts, noting that such narrative from a ruling party spells doom for the judiciary and the country.”
He noted that “the five NWC members who showed up for the meeting represent a group who have sold their souls to Wike for money, and unfortunately, Victor Giadom is among them.”
“The party is aware that with the position of the court as represented in the judgment, Emeka Beke remains the Chairman, and any dealings with Tony Okocha in the name of the party in Rivers State are unlawful and an invitation to anarchy. The knowledge of this truth made the majority of the NWC members (20 of them), especially the principal members like the Chairman, Publicity Secretary, Legal Adviser, and others, distance themselves from the Wike-induced media briefing.”
Eze urged the party leadership to respect the court’s judgment to save the ruling party from a looming crisis that may shake it to its “very foundation” and allow Emeka Beke and his congressionally elected team to seamlessly serve out their term as ordered by the court.
