The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria’s main opposition party, has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) is a structurally crippled political party which no longer has legitimacy.
The PDP said aspirants on the platform of the ruling party “should note that APC is legally defunct, structurally crippled and no longer a legitimate and valid vehicle to field candidates for elections under our extant laws”.
The opposition party which spoke in reaction to the leadership crisis in the the APC, said the party is plagued by confusion.
In a statement on Tuesday, Debo Ologunagba, PDP spokesperson, said the “fierce infighting” in the APC shows the party is “plagued by confusion”.
The PDP said “the unilateral dismissal and replacement” of Buni with his Niger State counterpart, Abubakar Sani Bello by President Muhammadu Buhari as Chairman of the nebulous contraption called the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) confirms that the CECPC is an illegal creation that lacks statutory powers, authority and legitimacy of party leadership.
“President’s action confirms that the APC is not a political party under our laws but a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which became legally nonoperational when on December 8, 2020, it dissolved its national, state as well as local government structures and handed its affairs over to a team of “political undertakers” known as the CECPC,” the statement reads.
“With the absence of a National Working Committee (NWC), National Executive Committee (NEC), a Board of Trustees (BoT) or legitimate structures in the States, the APC is plagued by confusion and fierce infighting by its various warlords with two National Chairmen, multiple factions in the States and a national secretariat now taken over by security agencies.
“This further validates PDP’s sustained position that the APC is just a bunch of strange bedfellows and inchoate sailors clobbered together for remote personal gains and not for governance and the public good.
“Moreover, by virtue of Section 183 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) which bars a sitting governor from holding ‘any other executive office in any capacity whatsoever’ while serving as a State Governor, the APC’s CECPC whether headed by Governor Buni or Governor Bello remains constitutionally invalid.”