By Olusegun Ejiwunmi

BACKGROUND

On 9th June 2015 Dr. Bukola Saraki and his co-travellers including his former friends in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, executed their plan to acquire the Senate presidency and the Speakership of the House of Representatives.

In an apparently well choreographed move, Bukola Saraki along with some All Progressives Congress, APC, mutineers joined the PDP senators and elected Saraki as the Senate President and Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP as Deputy Senate President. This was contrary to APC’s well-publicized preference for Ahmed Lawan and George Akume. Once the Senate coup was executed, the House of Representatives was bound to follow and it did when it elected another PDP turncoat called Yakubu Dogara as the Speaker of the House of Representatives against the Party’s preference for Femi Gbajabiamila and Tahir Monguno. Also another “Saraki-like” member called Lasun Sanusi from the State of Osun of all places “submitted” himself to be elected as deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. Sanusi (not the principled former CBN Governor) has been promptly disowned by his party in Osun for his acts of treachery and disloyalty.

Lest we forget, Saraki and 10 other senators defected from the PDP to the APC only last year to the warm embrace of the founding fathers of APC. There were also a host of other defectors in the House of Representatives including Yakubu Dogara. Most of the defectors were given APC tickets and won under the banner of the fledgling party. They were accommodated in the APC and yet it is the same party that they are defying with impunity.

It must be remembered that Saraki had dismissed the formation of the APC as a marriage that would not last. In an interactive session with correspondents last year he had said that in no time, the three alphabets that make up the abbreviation APC might go separate ways. He said “A” would go its own way; “P” would also go a separate way, while “C” would follow another direction.

Odigie Oyegun

When he eventually defected to the APC he proceeded in characteristic volte-face to pour invectives on his PDP colleagues when he said that the retrogressive and repressive policies of the PDP government motivated him to follow others to APC. He berated the then ruling party, describing its members as a bunch of failures. It is this same Saraki that has now colluded and connived with the PDP/FAILURES to bring his predictions of dissolution of the APC to pass.

In yet another big slap on the face of his party, Bukola Saraki sought to invoke the “my hands are tied” excuse, first made popular by Honourable Justice George Sodeinde Sowemimo at Obafemi Awolowo’s 1962 treason trial when he said he would love to have let Awolowo free but that his hands were tied because other persons had been convicted, etc.

In a letter dated 25th June, 2015 to the Chairman of APC, Bukola Saraki placed reliance on some arcane recently conjured Senate standing rules to justify his continued defiance of the party’s preference. He said his “hands were tied” by Senate standing rules, which prevented him from acting on APC’s preferred candidates for the senate principal offices. He then went on to pledge loyalty to President Buhari etc. This letter was yet another example of a self-serving attempt by Saraki to defy the same party that gave him a ticket to run. Again Yakubu Dogara and his supporters took the cue and engineered the disruption of the sitting of the House of Representatives thereby truncating the adoption of APC’s preferred candidates for the principal offices in the House of Representatives.

What The APC Constitution Says About Members’ Treachery

The most recent version of the APC Constitution anticipated this level of treachery and disloyalty and made copious provisions that are reproduced below. However, one would advise additions of offences like “sleeping with the enemy” and “resurrecting the dead/dying”. After all wasn’t PDP dying until Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara resurrected it?

Article 21 of the APC constitution is the relevant article and its relevant provisions are Article 21 (A)(i,ii,iii,vii), (B)(i&ii), D(i,f,g,h & ii)

A. OFFENCES:

Offences against the Party shall include the following:

i. A breach of any provision of this Constitution;

ii. Anti-Party activities or any conduct, which is likely to embarrass or have adverse effect on the party or bring the party into hatred, contempt, ridicule or disrepute;

iii. Disobedience or negligence in carrying out lawful directives of the Party;

iv. Any act of impersonation of the Party Offices or its holders;

v. Giving wrong information to any Organ of the Party or unauthorized publicity of a Party dispute without exhausting all avenues for settlement or redress within the Party;

vi. Fictionalization or creating parallel Party Organs at any level;

vii. Flouting the rules, regulations and decisions of the Party; engaging in dishonest practices, thuggery, continuously being absent from meetings to which he/she is invited without reasonable cause; carrying out anti-Party or other activities which tend to disrupt the peaceful, lawful and efficient organization of the Party or which are inconsistent with the Aims and Objectives of the Party;

viii. Carrying arms, offensive weapons or missile at a political rally or procession, Party meetings, Party Officers or voting centres other than in pursuance of a lawful duty;

ix. Any other conduct or act prohibited by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act, Electoral Guidelines or which by the Rules and Regulations of the Party, constitutes an offence;

x. Filing an action in a Court of Law against the Party or any of its Officers on any matters relating to the discharge of the duties of the Party without first exhausting all avenues for redress provided for in this Constitution;

xi. In cases of alteration of Delegate lists, falsification of nomination results, and or tampering with the processes of internal democracy of the Party, the offender shall be liable to expulsion from the Party and be prosecuted.

B. DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURE:

The Procedure for the hearing and determination of complaints or allegations are as follows:

i. A complaint by any Member of the Party against a Public Office holder, elected or appointed, or another member or against a Party organ or officer of the Party shall be submitted to the Executive Committee of that Party at all levels concerned which shall NOT LATER THAN 7 days of the receipt of the complaint, appoint a fact-finding or Disciplinary Committee to examine the matter.

ii. The Executive Committee concerned shall not debate or discuss the complaint or allegation before sending it to the Disciplinary Committee or fact-finding

Committee which shall hear, determine and cause its decision to be transmitted to the relevant Executive Committees of the Party concerned.

iii. The Executive Committee concerned upon receipt of the report of the fact finding or Disciplinary Committee shall not later than 14 days thereof either ratify or reject the decision of the fact-finding or Disciplinary Committee.

iv. The Executive Committee of the Party at the level where a complaint or allegation is made shall have original jurisdiction to her and determine such complaint or allegation provided that the assumption of jurisdiction by such Executive Committee shall not breach the rules of fair hearing.

v. Where either the complainant or the Party against whom a complaint is made, makes out a prima facie case of bias, intimidation or undue influence or likelihood of same by the Executive Committee seized with original jurisdiction to hear and determine such a matter or a member thereof or where the complaint is against a Party organ at the level, making it impracticable to appoint a fact finding or Disciplinary Committee, such complaint shall be transferred to the appropriate organ seized with appellate jurisdiction to hear and determine such matter save in the case of allegation against the principal Officer(s) in the National Executive Committee of the Party making it unjust to allow such Principal Officer(s) to participate in the appointment of a Fact- finding or Disciplinary Committee, the National Executive Committee shall exclude such Principal Officer from the entire arbitral process.

vi. For the purpose of ARTICLE 21 of this Constitution:

(a) The Ward Executive shall be the adjudicatory body of first instance over complaint and or allegation from the Polling Unit level.

(b) The Local Government Area Executive Committee shall be the adjudicatory body of first instance over complaints or allegations from the Ward level.

(c) The State Executive Committee shall be the adjudicatory body of first instance over complaints or allegations from the Local Government Area! Area Council level.

(d) The Zonal Committee shall be the adjudicatory body of first instance over complaints or allegations from the State Chapter in the zone.

(e)The National Executive Committee shall be the adjudicatory body over complaints and allegations from the zones

There are grounds for appeal in the constitution but I won’t go into that in the course of this piece.

C. PUNISHMENT OF ERRING MEMBERS:

i. The Party shall have power to impose the following sanctions on members in accordance with the nature and gravity of their offence:

Reprimand;

b) Censure;

c) Fine;

d) Debarment from holding Party Office;

e) Removal from Party Office;

f) Suspension from the Party;

g) Expulsion from the Party;

h) Debarment from contesting Office on the Party platform.

i) In appropriate circumstances the Party shall cause the prosecution of the Member or erstwhile member of the Party concerned.

ii. Where it is proposed to expel a member of the Executive Committee, political office holder, or a member of a Legislative House from membership of the Party, such a proposal shall be submitted to the National Executive Committee, which after deliberations on the matter may confirm or reject the proposal;

iii. A decision to expel a Member of the Party taken or confirmed by the National Executive Committee shall be submitted to the Board of Trustees for ratification;

iv. The National Executive Committee shall on receipt of the report of the fact- finding committee make a decision on the matter within fourteen (14) days;

v. Any member who files an action in court of law against the Party or any of its officers on any matter or matters relating to the discharge of the duties of the Party without first exhausting the avenues for redress provided for in this Constitution shall automatically stand expelled from the Party on filing such action and no appeal against expulsion as stipulated in this Clause shall be entertained until the withdrawal of the action from Court by the Member;

vi. Each organ of the Party shall have power to remove a Party officer or officers as the case may be from office at that level for failing to discharge his/her responsibilities, neglect and dereliction of duty or misconduct during his tenure of office through a vote of no confidence passed against such officer/officers by a two-thirds majority of the members of the appropriate organ and voting subject to such officer’s right to fair hearing.

It is clear from the foregoing provisions that Dr. Bukola Saraki , Yakubu Dogara and their co-travellers have crossed the “red line” and need to be sanctioned very quickly to prevent the dissolution of the APC. The mutineers are clearly caught by the provisions of Article 21 (a) i, ii & iii) and the other disciplinary procedures leading to expulsion from the Party must be immediately followed to bring sanity and discipline to the party.

In this unfolding sad movie Dr. Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara are the villains and no amount of whitewash can turn them into heroes in the eyes of the APC faithful. They betrayed the party and are well on their way to truncating the change we desire !!!!

—Ejiwunmi wrote from Lagos