Crisis in APC as expelled national chairman refuses to leave

Hilliard Eta says he remains the acting national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

This is in the face of his expulsion from the APC by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) which met at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday.

Eta, who was also a former national vice chairman of the party, became acting national chair after the post-election crisis that led to the removal of former Edo State governor Adams Oshiomhole from the position.

“The NEC approved the expulsion of Eta from the party for flouting the directives of NEC to discontinue all litigation against the party and its members,” Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai said.

But Eta insists that he remains the acting chairman of the APC until he is lawfully unseated. He called Tuesday’s NEC meeting “illegal”.

“You are aware that I’m in court based on the fact that even the NEC of June 25 was an illegal meeting and today’s (Tuesday’s) meeting again is an illegality built on illegality; it is a nullity,” Eta told the media.

“And you are also aware that there is a Supreme Court judgment that whenever a member of an organisation is in court pertaining to that organisation, the power of discipline is divested from that organisation on the person in court.

“So, the illegal contraption cannot speak for NEC that is not properly constituted. Even if it was properly constituted, the NEC of a party cannot take the place of the courts. I’m in court and I await a judicial pronouncement on the matter.

“I’m the acting national chairman of the APC. And as the acting national chairman of the party, if you go through our constitution, the only organ that can discipline me is the convention of the party.

“I am a constitutionalist.”