Yemi Adedeji, Abuja
Abdulaziz Yari, Governor of Zamfara State and Chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum says it is only at the National Convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that a constitutional amendment can be carried out to extend the tenures of the party executives.
He that said the decision reached at the NEC meeting where the tenure of John Oyegun, National Chairman of the party and his executives was extended by another 12 momths was a “mere expression of interest”.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of APC had earlier on Tuesday ended on a confusing note after the party, in contravention of its constitution, declared that it had extended the tenure of the National Chairman of the party, other members of its National Working Committee (NWC), and that of the 36 state executive committees, including the FCT, by one year.
The party explained that the tenure extension for the elected and appointed executive officials of the party was done in a bid to avert a pre-election crisis that might arise from the multiple congresses and convention ahead of the 2019 elections.
According to Yari, “What has been done is a mere expression of interest. The power of the convention to extend tenure is exercised only by way of a constitution amendment.
“The power of the National Executive Committee of our party cannot go beyond doing so by way of constitution amendment.
“Article 30 of the APC constitution states that the ‘constitution and the schedules hereto can be amended only by the National Convention of the party’.
“The process of amending the constitution is also expressly provided in Article 30 sub section 2.
“What was done today (yesterday) was only an expression of a desire to extend the tenure of the Chief Oyegun-led national executive.”
Also reinforcing Yari’s position, a party source who spoke on the condition of anonimity said the tenure extension granted to Oyegun and others had no legal backing, as a constitutional amendment was still required for the decision to be valid.
“As it stands, the decision can lead to a series of litigations and crises which is what the party is trying to avoid. The tenure extension can only be done with a constitutional amendment. And this amendment can only be done by the National Convention of the party.
“Even if we have to consider Article 13 of the constitution which was cited today (yesterday), it is still debatable if NEC can assume the power of the National Convention or whether it can legally carry out an amendment of the constitution.
“So, as it is, what transpired was an anomaly and has to be rectified to prevent law suits challenging the legality of the tenure extension,” said one party source.
The constitution of the party provides for a four-year tenure for its executives.
The current executives were elected in June 2014 for a four-year mandate, which is expected to lapse on June 30, 2018
