Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN), has lamented that the ruling All Progressive may be destroyed if it ignores the court ruling that nullifies Governor Mai Mala Buni as the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Caretaker Chairman.
In a statement on the matter, Keyamo said the development might have a grave implication on the APC.
According to him, “We cannot gamble with this delicate issue. The time to act is now.”
He explained that “The little technical point that saved Governor Akeredolu was that Jegede failed to join Mai Mala Buni in the suit.”
He added: “Jegede was challenging the competence of Buni as a sitting governor to run the affairs of the APC as chairman of the caretaker committee. He contends that this is against Section 183 of 1999 Constitution, which states that a sitting governor shall not, during the period when he holds office, hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever. In other words, had Buni been joined in the suit, the story may have been different today as we would have lost Ondo State to the PDP.”
Keyamo, however, warned that “any other person affected by the actions of the Buni-led Committee will henceforth, not fail to join him in any subsequent case in court. These include any subsequent election matter in any part of this country and all the APC congresses that are about to hold. The Supreme Court has just weaponised all those that would be aggrieved by the APC Congresses to proceed to court to challenge the competence of the Buni-led CECPC to organise the congresses and national convention.”
He implored the party to rescind its plan to hold the wards congresses on Saturday.
He said since “we cannot vouch for the legality of any NEC meeting called by Buni now. The safest is to get two-thirds of NEC members to sign an invitation to summon a NEC meeting”.
The alternative, according to him, is for the Board of Trustees, which includes the President, to be activated to organise a national convention in line with Article 13 of the APC Constitution.”