Ahmad El-Marzuq, national legal adviser of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has called for the expulsion of Salihu Lukman, vice-chairman of the party in the north-west, for suing the leadership of the party.
El-Marzuq’s recommendation was contained in a memo sent to the party’s leadership.
Lukman had asked the federal high court in Abuja to compel Abdullahi Adamu and Iyiola Omisore, the party’s national chairman and secretary, respectively, to publish APC’s financial records.
The legal adviser said the law does not allow any court to interfere with any intra-party matter.
“This is because a political party is a voluntary organisation or association,” he said.
“Persons join political parties of their own choice; therefore, where there is any internal disagreement, it must be resolved by a majority decision of the members. That being so, any dispute over its internal affairs is not justifiable and no court has jurisdiction to entertain a claim on such dispute.’
“However, a cursory look at Article 25.2 (i) of the Party’s Constitution would reveal that it is not mandatory to convene a meeting of the National Executive Committee every quarter as postulated by the plaintiff, rather it is at the discretion of the National Working Committee or at the request in writing by one-third of the members of the national executive committee.
“It is clear that the party did not breach any provision of its constitution by not calling for a meeting of NEC every quarter for the purpose of presenting activities of the party to the members of NEC as alluded to by the plaintiff and thus his suit ought to be dismissed by the court for lacking in merit.
“By resorting to a court action against the party, it is my recommendation that disciplinary measures, in accordance with the party’s constitution, should be meted out against the plaintiff particularly Article 21.5 (v) which states thus: ‘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 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’.”
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