Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Festus Keyamo has disclosed that the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case between Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State and Jegede, has given powers to APC members willing to challenge Buni’s Chairmanship in court.
In a statement issued on Wednesday night, Keyamo has warned that the ruling party risked being destroyed “from top to bottom” by the judiciary if the party ignore the ruling by the Apex Court.
Keyamo urged the APC National Executive Committee (NEC) to urgently meet and reconstitute the caretaker committee to exclude those holding executive positions.
“We cannot gamble with this delicate issue. The time to act is now.
“The little technical point that saved Governor Akeredolu was that Jegede failed to join Mai Mala Buni in the suit.
“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 the 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.
“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 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.”
