The leadership tussle ravaging the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has taken another turn as the party has commenced the replacement process for the post of the Deputy National Secretary of the party declared vacant on Wednesday by the National Working Committee.
The office was occupied by, Hon. Victor Giadom who declared himself the national chairman of the Party on Wednesday citing a March ruling of an Abuja high court.
Giadom is a loyalist of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi.
The National Working Committee of the party had disowned Giadom, alleging that he resigned from the office in 2018 to contest the River State Deputy Governorship during the last general elections.
The National Vice Chairman, South South, Hon. Hillard Etagbo Eta who has been standing in for Senator Ajimobi, another acting National Chairman said the NWC has directed the South South geo-political zone to commence the process of the filling of the vacant post of the Deputy National Secretary as declared by the NWC.
According him, “in the wisdom of the NWC, they now asked us in the South-South to bring forth a name to fill that vacancy that had been created.
“As a member of the NWC and National Vice Chairman of the party and as one who coordinates the activities of the party in the South-South and who represents the National Chairman, I have now communicated the Rivers State chapter to who this particular position has been micro-zoned, to now meet as a party to bring out the name and forward that name to the South-South zone for ratification and onward transmission to the NWC, that is what we are in the process of doing”.
Sheeding light on how Giadom office became vacant, Eta said, “Chief Victor Giadom resigned to contest as Deputy Governorship candidate of the party, and it is on record, we transmitted his name to INEC, he printed posters and he could not have done so, we could not have transmitted his name, he could not have campagined has Deputy Governorship candidate of our party without first resigning his office.
“So, in the wisdom of the NWC, they now asked us in the South-south to bring forth a name to fill that vacancy that had been created. I think we should be very clear on this, I think whatever mistakes, whatever missteps have been done cannot viciate the grand law of the party, which is the Constitution of the party”.
But when told that Giadom claimed that the NWC granted him a wavier which enabled him to return back to office after the election, the National Vice Chairman maintained that Giadom has ceased to be a NWC member, arguing that the former deputy national Secretary was economical with the truth.
Hear Eta: “You see the Constitution of our party is not a voluminous book for you to find out whether anyone can be given a waiver from resignation, we don’t even have it in our constitution.
“If Chief Victor Giadom feels very bad or very strongly about what the resolution of the NWC, of course, like he is always doing, like his likes are always doing, he can proceed to court, but that is the resolution of the NWC,” Eta advised.
