The crisis rocking the Benue chapter of the All Progressives Congress on Thursday took a twist when the aggrieved executive members of the party who were dissolved by the APC National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, dragged him to court for ignoring the exparte order restraining the National Working Committee from carrying out the action.
The development comes barely 24 hours after a Benue High Court sitting ordered the APC not to remove Agada and the current executives of the party.
A copy of the exparte order granted by Justice Theresa Igoche in motion No MH /1585m/2024 stopped the Ganduje-led NWC from sacking the Austin Agada-led State Working Committee until the expiration of their four-year tenure.
The Benue chapter of the APC had been at loggerheads with Governor Hyacinth Alia over the leadership of the party in the state.
While the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, is in support of the Agada-led state working committee, Alia, on the other hand, has thrown its weight behind the Benjamin Omakolo-led faction.
But the ruling APC ignored the court order and announced the dissolution of the Benue exco on Wednesday and immediately inaugurated a seven-man caretaker Committee to take over the affairs of the party at the state level for six months.
The newly installed committee has Benjamin Omale and Prof Bem Angwe as the chairman and secretary respectively.
Other members include Richard Mzungweve, James Ornguga, Terhemen Ngbea, Helen Agaigbe and Ali Adah.
Reacting to the action, Agada, alongside eight other executive members, on Thursday, approached the Benue High Court to demand that contempt of court charges be slammed on Ganduje and his NWC members.
In motion No: MHC/1585/M/2024, the Agada-led exco prayed the court to compel the party leadership to adhere to the decision not to remove them from office until the expiration of their four-year tenure.
They also begged the court to issue a punitive measure against the NWC over its disobedience of the earlier restraining order.
Agada had, in the affidavit, expressed surprise that in the evening of Wednesday, 21st August 2024, at 6pm, the Ganduje-led NWC held a meeting where he went ahead to dissolve his executive committee and appointed a caretaker committee against the earlier court order.
“That I saw on several television stations that same evening about 8pm and several other news media that the Benue State Working Committee of the Respondent on record has been dissolved by the Respondent against whom the leave of this Honourable court is sought,” the affidavit read.
When called for a reaction, the National Deputy Organising Secretary of the APC, Nze Chidi Duru, confirmed sighting the earlier restraining order but couldn’t clarify if the party has been served the new court paper.
Duru, however, declined to speak further on the issue.
He said, “I have not seen the contempt proceeding. But I have sighted the court order restraining the NWC and the party from dissolving their exco. However, lawyers know what they should do.”
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