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The crises rocking
the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) took a turn for the worse
yesterday as a faction of the party headed to court to stop the meeting
of the National Executive Council (NEC) slated for today.

John
Odigie-Oyegun, a member of the splinter faction which last Friday said
it has sacked the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, said
it wants the court to stop the meeting because it is an illegal
assembly.

He told NEXT in an
interview that, “The tenure of Edwin Ume-Ezeoke’s leadership of the
party expired today (yesterday) having assumed office on September 2,
2006. Our constitution allows a four -year tenure. So, we are in court
already and we joined INEC.”

Court can’t stop us

However, Emma
Eneukwu, the publicity secretary of the party, said these allegations
will not stop the congress, adding, “We’ve not got any court paper. In
any case, what is the big deal in going to court?

It is you media
that is making these people important. Come to the meeting tomorrow
(today) and see for yourself.” The leader of the faction, Muhammed A.
Muhammed, a senator, could not be reached as calls to his mobile
telephone yesterday went unanswered.

“Our NEC meeting is still holding tomorrow (today). We are going ahead and there is nothing stopping us,” Mr Eneukwu insisted.

The group which
announced the dissolution of the Ume-Ezeoke-led working committee is
believed to be loyal to the Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, who
has announced his intention to contest as presidential candidate of the
party. It appointed Mr. Muhammed to head a transition committee
mandated to run the party pending the conduct of its national
convention where new officers are expected to emerge.

Divided interest

Members of the
splinter group include a former governor of Kogi State, Abubakar Audu,
and chairmen of the party from Anambra, Nasarawa, Kebbi, Rivers, Kano
and Ebonyi.

The Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) which reportedly sent two
representatives to last Friday’s NEC meeting however turned around to
say that the splinter group did not give it the mandatory 21-day notice
required by the Electoral Act before holding the NEC meeting.

In its reply, the
splinter group accused INEC of “double standard” insisting that the
21-day notice was required only for national conventions and not NEC
meetings.

According to it, only a seven-day notice was required, which it gave.

The ANPP had
earlier in the year, postponed its national convention twice over the
inability to meet the electoral commission’s notice requirement. But
there were reports that the disagreement over the zoning of party
offices, particularly those of chairmen and secretary, actually
informed the postponement.

At its meeting in
Abuja late July, the national caucus of the party, adopted a zoning
formula which will allow the South East geo-political zone to produce
the chairman while the North East zone retains the post of the national
secretary.

However, some
members of the party, including Mr Shekarau’s loyalists, reportedly
expressed dissatisfaction with the formula, which has the backing of
two of the party’s governors, Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State and
Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe.

The two governors are said to be opposed to the presidential
ambition of Mr Shekarau. They are also said to prefer Harry Akande, a
billionaire from Oyo State as the party’s national chairman in the
South West.