A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the party’s 2023 senatorial candidate for Benue South, Comrade Daniel Onjeh, has knocked the party’s nation Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje and the National Working Committee, NWC, over their stance on the crisis rocking the party in Benue.
DAILY POST recalls that the NWC led by Ganduje had in a bid to resolve the lingering leadership crisis in the state, urged the loyalists and proxies of Governor Hyacinth Alia and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume to withdraw their lawsuits or risk facing disciplinary actions from the party.
Akume and Alia have reportedly been in a political feud over who controls the state party structure.
The cold war between the governor and the SGF was said to have torn the Benue APC members apart with supporters divided on which camp to pledge their loyalty.
Following the directives to withdraw lawsuits, Onjeh In a letter dated 25th March, 2024, and addressed to the APC NWC through Ganduje, wondered why the NWC disregarded his earlier petition dated January 22, 2024, and the subsequent reminder he wrote to it on February 6, 2024, alleging anti-party activities against the embattled state chairman of the party Mr. Austin Agada.
The APC chieftain had alleged financial impropriety against Mr Agada, stating that he (Agada) worked for the opposition party during the 2023 general elections.
Agada had since denied the allegations.
In the fresh letter, Onjeh noted that the NWC’s failure to address his petition “was a clear statement that they had taken sides with the injustice that had festered in the Benue State Chapter of the APC”.
Onjeh declared that the progressive members of the APC in the state will disregard the directive of Ganduje, adding that propriety and natural justice demands that the NWC must explain to him why it refused to attend to his petition, “bearing in mind that justice deferred is justice denied”.
He urged Ganduje and the APC NWC to either obey the party’s constitution or resign within seven days.
“Let me state categorically that as long as the NWC fails to abide by the party constitution, we, the progressive members of the APC in Benue State, shall not abide by its directives.
“We shall not withdraw any case in court as we cannot be gagged into silence nor be cowed into submitting our necks to the slaughter slaps of injustice. Ubi jus ubi remedium is a Latin legal maxim that translates to ‘where there is a right, there is a remedy.’
“It encapsulates the principle that when a legal right is violated, the law provides a corresponding remedy or relief to the aggrieved party,” stated Onjeh.