APC: We’ll Resist Plot to Remove Defected Governors

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it has uncovered a clandestine plan by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to conspire with an unnamed judge to declare vacant the seats of the five governors of the ruling party that defected to the opposition despite the Supreme Court judgment on a similar matter in 2007.

The party's interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, who addressed journalists on the decisions reached at a meeting of the Interim National Executive Committee of the party in Abuja yesterday, said it would back its governors and National Assembly members willingly to defect to the party against any attempt to unseat them.

The APC leadership and the party's governors had earlier met on Monday night to address some of the challenges facing the opposition party and to work out survival strategies ahead of the 2015 general election.

Speaking on the move to remove the five governors, Akande said the party would give its governors and lawmakers the necessary support in defence of their rights and freedom of association.

"The APC has noted with concern the threats of the PDP to procure a pliant judge to declare the seats of the G5 governors vacant in spite of the Supreme Court decision in the case of Atiku in 2007. It is of note that several times governors, including their legislatures from other parties, have decamped from the ANPP and PPA to the PDP even when their former parties were not factionalised without any consequence. The APC will not only resist this lawfully but hereby warns the PDP to desist from words and deeds of impunity that threaten our stability and democracy, " he said.

He added that the party hoped that the judiciary would not be a party to the deliberate promotion of lawlessness and impunity in the country.

The APC also said it had received reports of an attack on the office of the deputy governor of Rivers State.

"This and other acts of impunity clearly show the PDP, its agents and governments to be lawless. The APC warns that these acts demonstrate clearly that this government is anti-people, dictatorial and would go to any length to plunge the country into chaos.

"The party noted with concern the threats of the PDP to procure a pliant judge to declare the seats of the G5 governors vacant in spite of the Supreme Court decision in the case of Atiku in 2007.

"The APC has alerted the nation of the gross abuse of the ecological funds and other illegal funds through the selective and unjust disbursement of funds to only non-APC states. We also note the revelation of the diversion of revenues that ought to have been paid into the Federation Account running into trillions of naira.

"Other budgeted amounts for parastatals, pensions, and the fuel subsidy that ought to have been properly accounted for are being similarly plundered with impunity. We call on the National Assembly to commence the immediate investigation of these constitutional violations and act in consonance with Nigeria’s constitution. This has become necessary to save our nation from falling off a fiscal cliff caused by excessive theft and corruption, " APC said.

While lamenting the serial failures on the part of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct by-election and elections in Imo, Delta, Jigawa and Anambra States, APC said the situation had cast doubts on the ability of the commission to conduct the forthcoming elections in 2014 and 2015.

"The APC is concerned with the situation in Rivers State. This display of impunity and the Faustian bargain between the police commissioner and a handful of rebel legislators has gone on for a full year. It must stop. Now is the time for all men and women of goodwill to speak up against the assault on an elected government and violations of the right of Rivers citizens.

"The international community is hereby put on notice that Nigeria’s democratic journey unravels and Rivers State might be the lightening torch for Nigeria’s descent into impunity. We wish to restate once again that whatever touches one APC state affects the entire party. Our party will therefore not stand idly by and watch democracy desecrated in Rivers State or elsewhere in the country for that matter," it said.