The suspended national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, had a reprieve at the weekend following the lifting of his suspension by his Ward 10 in Estako West Local Government Area of Edo State.
The dramatic turn of events came as the national leadership of APC announced, also at the weekend, that the South-south zone had replaced its Deputy National Secretary, Chief Victor Giadom, with Worgu Boms, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Rivers State in the wake of the crisis plaguing the party.
Similarly, the North-east National Vice Chairman of the party, Salihu Mustapha, applied to a High Court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to strike out the order making him Acting National Secretary. He said the move was in total submission to the supremacy of the North-east caucus of the APC.
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it planned to take briefing from its Election and Party Monitoring Department and the Legal Services Department for proper interpretations of the various court rulings on the crisis besetting the party.
The recent suspension of Oshiomhole by the order of a Federal High Court in Abuja, now upheld by the Court of Appeal, had exacerbated the leadership crisis in the governing party.
But Secretary of Ward 10, Estako West, Emuakemeh Sule, said at a press conference on Saturday, after a meeting of the ward executive members and the APC National Working Committee (NWC), that the suspension was lifted because it lacked merit.
Sule stated that the resolution of Ward 10 executive members to lift Oshiomhole’s suspension was reached at a meeting held on June 4 at the APC secretariat, Apana-Uzairue, Edo State.
According to Sule, “We have reviewed the circumstances leading to the suspension of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and found no merit in the allegation or processes employed.
“We hereby lift the suspension placed on Comrade Adams Oshiomhole by the ward. We call on all organs of our great party to restore all rights and privileges of membership to Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.”