APC Acting National Chairman: 15 NWC Members Reject Giadom, Affirm Ajimobi
…As Ajimobi assumes duty
BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – After hours of rigmarole, intrigues, power play, what seems like a coup and counter coup, members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) moved decisively on Wednesday to remove Mr Victor Giadom, who they described as an interloper and usurper.
This is as the affirmed Acting National Chairman, Senator Abiola Ajimobi announced his assumption of office and called on all stakeholders to maintain peace.
The 15 out of 16 members of NWC of APC accordingly, affirmed the Deputy National Chairman of the Party, Senator Abiola Ajimobi as Acting National Chairman and resolved that Giadom is not and cannot claim to be a member of the NWC after his resignation in 2019 to contest as Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
National Vice-Chairman of the APC (South-South), Mr Hilliard Eta, who announced the decision of the National Working Committee to journalists at a media briefing soon after Giadom left the National Secretariat of the Party, declared that preparations for the Edo Governorship primary remain on course.
Mr Victor Giadom who earlier in the day declared himself as the new Acting National Chairman of the APC, said his Acting position was based on a court ruling.
The position of the 15 NWC members with the exception of Giadom with respect to who is the Acting National Chairman, put paid to attempted moves to take over the control of the party by some few elements within the Party working upturn decision already arrived at ahead of the Edo State party primaries.
This is as it was gathered that some governors on the platform of the party working towards actualizing their 2023 presidential ambition are desirous of weakening the structures presently in place to pave way for their own structures.
Meanwhile, the affirmed Acting National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abiola Ajimobi has said through his Media Aide, Mr Bolaji Tunji that he has already assume duty.
Ajimobi appealed to members of the APC especially members of the NWC to let peace continue to reign until the party holds its National Executive Committee meeting to take a position on the way forward.
Ajimobi said his assumption of duty is in line with Section 14, subsection 3 of the APC Constitution which states; “The deputy national chairman shall act as the national chairman in the absence of the national chairman from his zone”.
The former governor of Oyo State became the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the APC in March, when the National Working Council (NWC) of the party, wrote to the Southwest to fill the vacant position, following the appointment of the former occupant of the office, Otunba Niyi Adebayo as a Minister of the Federal Republic.
Ajimobi’s appointment received the support of five out of the six South West states of Oyo, Ondo, Osun, Ogun and Lagos with only Ekiti protesting the nomination, adding that his appointment into the NWC of the party was equally affirmed by a Federal High Court.
