Press Statement
…Mocks APC for Holding Illegal NEC Meeting…Demands Buni, Malami’s Resignation
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) berates President Muhammadu Buhari
for violating his oath of office by using the Federal Executive Council
(FEC) Chambers and government resources to conduct the affairs of his
party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Our party describes this action of Mr. President, in using public
facilities and resources for APC’s National Executive Committee (NEC)
meeting, as the height of corruption as well as a desecration of the
sanctity of the seat of power and our national values.
The PDP says never in the history of our nation has governance been so
devalued to the extent of using the hallowed chamber of the highest
executive body in the country, where high-level executive decisions are
taken, for an illegal, wrongly constituted and Nicodemus meeting of a
political party.
This shameful development is a further manifestation of the level of
impunity, recklessness, disrespect for rules and disdain for our laws by
the APC administration, whose latest action exposes a move towards
instituting the art of running processes and programmes through
illegality, illicitness, illegitimate and unlawful means driven by crude
force and naked power.
Furthermore, it is an indefensible double standard for President Buhari,
whose administration has been hounding and prosecuting innocent
Nigerians for allegedly using public resources for activities of their
political parties, to use the resources and facilities of the FEC
chamber for his party’s NEC meeting.
It is even more distressing that the Attorney General of the Federation
(AGF), Abubakar Malami, is part of this desecration of the 1999
Constitution (as amended) by functioning as a notary public to a
political party and using official facilities of FEC chamber to
administer oath of office to a functionary of a political party, in
total disregard to his oath of office, the code of conduct prohibitions
under the 5th Schedule and extant public service rules.
This is the same Attorney General, who has been prosecuting others for
alleged but unsubstantiated use of public resources for activities of
their political parties.
The PDP holds that by using government facilities and resources to
promote the activities of his party, the Attorney General has become
culpable of the same offence for which he has been prosecuting innocent
Nigerians.
Malami has therefore become ethically challenged to continue in office
as the Chief Law Officer of our nation.
Our party therefore demands that the Attorney General should immediately
resign from office and surrender himself for prosecution
It is even more disgraceful that the furtive APC NEC meeting at the FEC
Chamber was convened in total violation of the APC Constitution, which
prescribes 14 days notice for regular NEC meeting and 7 days notice in
the case of an emergency meeting under Article 25 (b) (i) and (ii)
respectively.
Such a coup against their own party’s constitution renders the purported
APC NEC meeting illegal and decisions taken therein, a complete nullity.
Significantly, the kind of marshal orders and threats which President
Buhari was issuing out at the so called NEC meeting without allowing for
a debate was a sad reminder of his days at the Supreme Military Council
in 1984.
This raised questions on the democratic content of the charade called a
NEC meeting by the APC.
Moreover, now that the Governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni, has been
sworn in as the Chairman of APC Caretaker Committee, he has made himself
a full administrative officer of the APC and as such, should immediately
resign as the Governor of Yobe state, in keeping with Article 17 (iv) of
the APC Constitution which prohibits such dual mandate.
The PDP counsels APC leaders to note that Nigeria is a nation governed
by law and as such their party will not be allowed to use their crisis
to destroy our democratic order.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
