Hilliard Eta, a former acting chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to nullify the appointment of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party.
Eta, a former Vice Chairman of the APC, also asked the court to declare him as the acting chairman of the party.
Naija News recalls that the ruling party was enmeshed in crisis which led to three people laying claim to the chairmanship of the APC after the suspense of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
Various conflicting court orders led to a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on June 25, 2020.
The NEC meeting which had in attendance Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; Senate President, Ahmed Lawan; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; governors elected on the platform of the party and other party stakeholders set up the caretaker committee and appointed the Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni, to head the committee.
The NEC also dissolved the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), led by the then National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.
Following its dissolution, 18 members of the NWC loyal to Oshiomhole, in a statement, described its scrapping as illegal threatening to drag the new leadership to court.
Making good of their threat, Eta, on November 26, 2020, filed a suit challenging the dissolution of the Oshiomhole-led NWC which he was part of.
He asked the High Court to restrain the Mala Buni-led committee from taking any further steps on behalf of the party which may include planning the party’s convention.
Listed as defendants in the suit are Buni in his capacity as chairman of the caretaker committee; John Akpan Udoedehe as the National Secretary; as well as Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State; Governor Sani Bello of Niger State, and Stella Okotete, as members of the committee.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was also listed as the sixth defendant.
