Appeal Court Vacates Suspension Order…
After a protracted silence that had sent tongues wagging, President Muhammadu Buhari has finally intervened in the festering leadership crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), forcing the party to postpone its scheduled National Executive Council (NEC) meeting for Tuesday.
The postponement was announced Monday afternoon by the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Abubakar Bagudu, after leading the other governors elected on the platform of the APC to a meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said the NEC meeting would remain suspended until such a time that the governors are able to report back to the President the outcome of their peace moves.
The meeting which lasted for barely 20 minutes had all the APC governors in attendance except Nasir el Rufai of Kaduna State, Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and Mai Bala Buni of Yobe State.
It had been widely speculated that the postponed NEC meeting was called by the anti Oshiomhole elements in the ruling party to facilitate the formal removal of the embattled chairman from office.
According to Bagudu who is also the Governor of Kebbi State, the governors had agreed to work together in order to resolve the lingering leadership crisis in the party.
He said: “We met with Mr. President, amongst other issues we discussed about the party in appreciation to Mr. President how he has given access to each of us individually and collectively.
“And amongst the issues we discussed was the need for the resolution that the governors have taken to work together to resolve all the issues in the party.
“And also we seek Mr. President support to postpone the National Executive Council NEC meeting that is schedule for tomorrow until such a time that the governors are ready to report back.”
The Kebbi governor said President Buhari was excited with their resolution.
“Yes he’s so happy that we all agreed to that,” was his answer to the question on whether the President agreed with their suggestions.
The APC leadership dispute heightened recently when an Abuja High Court upheld the suspension of the embattled Oshiomole by his ward and ordered him to stop parading himself as the APC national chairman.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal Abuja, yesterday, ordered the stay of execution of the lower court ruling that suspended Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress(APC).
The appellate court, in a ruling by a three-man panel of Justices led by Justice Yahaya Dattijo, also issued an interlocutory injunction restraining the Respondents from taking steps to give effect to the high court ruling, pending the determination of appeals Oshiomhole filed before it.
The court, therefore, fixed Thursday to hear the two appeals marked CA/A/187/2020 and CA/A/188/2020.
Earlier in the day, the appellate court adjourned indefinitely hearing in the appeal on the ground that the court has no panel yet to entertain the appeal.
However, the court reconvened at 4pm to hear the appeal.
Oshiomhole had in an exparte order through his counsel, Mr Damian Dodo SAN and Wole Olanipekun SAN had in his notice of appeal, asked the appellate court to set aside the suspension order slammed on him by an Abuja High Court.
According to him, the judge of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Justice Danlami Senchi, erred in law and arrived at a wrong conclusion which occasioned a miscarriage of justice when the court placed him on suspension at an interlocutory stage of a suit instituted against him by some aggrieved members of the party.
Peoples Daily
