The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, moved the motion for the former Acting National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Victor Giadom, to be excused from the National Executive Council meeting of the party, according to The Eagle Online, quoting multiple sources.
It will be recalled that that President Muhammadu Buhari had backed the acting National Chairman, leading to his call for a NEC meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on June 25, 2020, with most members attending online.
At the meeting, which had some members of the National Assembly in attendance, President Buhari made a number of proposals, all of which were approved by the NEC.
One of the proposal was the dissolution of the NEC and the setting up of a National Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee.
The President proposed in his speech: “The meeting may adopt the developed resolution as contained in the agenda and pass resolutions including: approving the immediate discontinuation of all pending litigations involving the party and its members; ratifying the primary election conducted in Edo State; dissolving the current National Working Committee, and appointing caretaker/Extra-ordinary Convention Planning committee for the party.”
Sources said once the meeting adopted the Yobe State Governor, Mai Male Buni, as the Chairman of the National Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Gbajabiamila, a lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, moved a motion saying with the development, there was no need for Giadom’s presence at the meeting again.
The motion, multiple sources told The Eagle Online, was supported overwhelmingly.
One of the sources said: “This then led to Giadom being escorted out of the venue of the meeting.”
It will be recalled that The Eagle Online had reported that Alhaji Tunde Rahman, the Media Aide of the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had in an opinion article, published elsewhere on this news website, given the indication that Giadom was walked out of the meeting.
Rahman wrote in the article: “Victor Giadom would never have laid claim to the APC chairmanship if not that certain figures were instigating his actions from their lairs in the shadows. He was not really an independent leadership figure. He was but the improvised explosive device of those who paid him to do their destructive work so that they may seem to keep their hands clean. Their motives were still soiled and sordid.
“The turmoil this minority caused indeed was hurting the party. President Muhammadu Buhari waited patiently, hoping matters would be resolved. However, when it became clear that the usurpers would not stop, he wisely determined to put an end to their penchant for confusion.
“The action taken at the recent National Executive Council meeting of the APC placed the party on an even keel. Giadom gloatingly waltzed into the meeting thinking himself chairman of the party. He was escorted out before the meeting ended. The court cases were to end. The party was to stand united behind the Edo primary winner, Osagie Ise-Iyamu. A caretaker committee comprised of leading and highly respected party members was formed to guide the party through elections in Edo and Ondo States and to schedule a national convention in six months.
“The minority usurpers were denied the core of what they had been plotting to achieve. Party leadership was moved as far from their hands as ever. They reacted predictably by vainly depicting this as a setback for the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. But Asiwaju’s statement on the matter set the record straight. If this were a defeat, it is one of those defeats so advantageous as to be indistinguishable from victory. In their dissections of events, some writers have, however, attached themselves to the empty conjecture and propaganda of the anti-party usurpers.”
Crisis had erupted in the APC with the court affirmation of the suspension of the then National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.
This led to the emergence of about four claimants to the seat of the national chairman, including Giadom.
