Buhari Criticises APC For Forbidding Aggrieved Members From Going To Court

Buhari Criticises APC For Forbidding Aggrieved Members From Going To Court

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday disagreed with the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on how party members should address their grievances.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, the President believes the court is the last option for aggrieved members to seek redress.

“We can’t deliberately deny people of their rights,” he said one week after the APC National Working Committee (NWC) warned members to withdraw all court cases or risk being sanctioned.

In a statement issued on Monday last week, the NWC described the growing trend of cases filed by members as ‘manifest indiscipline’, following the party primaries held across the country.

It stressed that the APC considered such action as an anti-party activity and advised aggrieved members to explore the party’s dispute resolution mechanism.

President Buhari, however, insisted that if anyone was displeased with the way and manner anything has been done and felt deprived of his/her rights, then such a person was at liberty to approach the courts for redress.

“We agreed that party primaries should be conducted either through direct, indirect or consensus methods, and if anyone feels unjustly treated in the process, such a person can go to court,” he said.

“The court should always be the last resort for the dissatisfied. For the party to outlaw the court process is not acceptable to me.”

In a related development, the President advised members to work with the reconciliation committees empanelled for the six geo-political zones by the APC.

He also faulted the claims that they were presidential committees on reconciliation, stressing that the APC was the only body authorised to constitute such committees.

Following the warning issued to the aggrieved members, the APC had set up National Peace and Reconciliation committees chaired by six governors.

They are Abdullahi Ganduje (South East committee), Kashim Shettima (South West committee), Rauf Aregbesola (South-South committee), Abiola Ajimobi (North West committee), Ibrahim Geidam (North Central committee), and Tanko Al-Makura (North East committee).