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A crack has emerged in the camp of the National Working Committee (NWC) group led by Victor Giadom.
The group which was opposed to the leadership of former Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi in the All Progressives Congress (APC), suffered a setback on Thursday as the National Vice Chairman North East, Comrade Mustapha Salihu, dissociated himself from a purported court order granting him power to act as national secretary of the party.
An interim court order dated June 16, 2020, obtained at a FCT High Court sitting at Maitama presided over by Hon Justice S U Bature, with Salihu as the purported applicant asked that he should act as national secretary pending “the decision of a validly convened National Executive Committee (NEC) or pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filed, whichever comes first.”
But in a telephone interview with The Nation, the national vice chairman dissociated himself from the interim order, saying he was not a party to it.
Salihu, who sounded angry about the development, said there was no way he would have been part of the so- called interim order, having participated in a stakeholders meeting from the North East where the nomination and endorsement of Architect Waziri Bulama as the acting national secretary of the party was reached.
According to him: “My zone, the North East has already nominated Architect Waziri Bulama in the presence of the Senate President, APC governors from the zone and other party stakeholders as the acting national secretary. I was at the meeting where this decision was reached. So why now would I go back to obtain a court order to act as national secretary?
“I was not part of such shenanigan. It is not in my character to play such dirty politics and I condemn in strong terms those behind the act. At a time like this when the party is going through trying times, it is such a time that all lovers of the party must pull together to keep the party running.”
The motion ex-parte with number FCT/HC/M/7707/2020 was supported by an affidavit sworn by one Obinna Ugwu with National Legal Adviser, Babatunde Ogala; National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa -Onilu; Acting National Secretary, Waziri Bulama and the APC as defendants.