Citing an ongoing court injunction prohibiting the activity, the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Secretariat has distanced itself from the state congress that took place in Ondo State on Tuesday.
The party said that the necessity to abide by an ex parte order from the Federal High Court prohibiting it from holding the congress in the state informed their stance.
According to Naija News, Senator Ajibola Bashiru, the National Secretary of the APC, clarified this during a speech on Arise Television.
He said that the party would not defy any legitimate court order.
As a law-abiding party, we woke up to a Federal High judicial order and instructed our team to wait until the order was revoked or the judicial authority issued a different order. We don’t support illegality,” Bashiru declared.
“When there is a positive court order, you must respect it, even though we think the court order should not have been granted to restrain the holding of the congress because it is not a perishable item.”
The ex parte decision prohibiting the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission from holding the congress was given on Monday by Justice Toyin Adegoke of the Federal High Court in Akure.
The order came after some disgruntled party members filed an application contesting the exercise.
The state purportedly held a congress that produced 36 new party officials in contravention of the restraining order. However, throughout the drill, INEC representatives were not present.
In recent weeks, the Ondo APC has been embroiled in internal strife, with emotions apparently becoming violent during the ward congress, where three people were purportedly killed.
During a stakeholders’ meeting, Ade Adetimehin, the party’s state chairman, was allegedly pummeled and hurt along with a few party leaders.
Deep rifts inside the party’s state chapter have been revealed by the turmoil ahead of upcoming elections.
Olayide Adelami, the state’s deputy governor, senators who represent the state in the National Assembly, and members of the House of Representatives—aside from Jimi Odimayo, who represents the Okitipupa/Irele Federal Constituency—were noticeably absent from the contentious congress.
Bashiru further revealed that the congress committee that had already arrived in the state was contacted and instructed to stand down after receiving the court order.
