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ANPP
govs, trustees dump Etiebet
�He accuses Useni of
forgery
By Felix Ofou
Group Politics Editor
(Lagos)
and Chuks Ehirim
Snr Correspondent
(Abuja)
Disarray in the All Nigeria
Peoples Party (ANPP), the country�s second biggest party, became
pronounced at the weekend when its National Chairman Don Etiebet lost the
support of its board of trustees (BOT) as well as that of its six
governors.
In effect, he has been
stripped of his influence in the party, which he had joined as a result of
his dissatisfaction with events in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of
which he was a founding member.
The dumping of Etiebet from
the ANPP, according to an insider, came on Friday night during the meeting
of the BOT members, held at the Abuja residence of its Chairman Augustus
Aikhomu.
The meeting was attended by 23
members. It decided to sack the executive, led by Etiebet, at its next
National Executive Committee (NEC) scheduled for November 27.
In a swift reaction, the man
has accused former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Jeremiah Useni
of perpetuating fraud in his bid to lay claim to the party leadership �
and has threatened to go to court �at the appropriate time� to expose the
fraud.
Etiebet said in an interview
at the party secretariat at the weekend that Useni�s claim to the
chairmanship has no basis, and that the document relied upon for the
decision is a forgery.
His words: �Have you seen the
document? It was written and signed by two or three persons. Have you seen
it? How can they say that Senator Legogie, a former Senate president,
cannot spell his name? And that is the document that Useni is relying
on�.
Besides, Etiebet, a former
Petroleum Minister, insisted that at no time did the party NEC meet to
ratify his purported suspension, and that the document relied upon by
Useni to claim the National Chairman�s position was signed by some state
chairmen and some NEC members, thereby rendering the process
void.
Despite Etiebet�s protest, a
caretaker committee is being constituted to run the affairs till March
2005 when there would be a convention to elect a new set of
leaders.
The six ANPP governors
previously opposed to his removal reportedly gave their full support to
the decision to sack the entire executive. Naturally, Etiebet opposed it,
but when the proposal was put to vote, 15 persons supported it with five
against.
There could be power sharing
in the caretaker committee, a middle of the road approach to pacify both
sides to the conflict.
Our source disclosed that one
Jimoh Ibrahim is being positioned as the party�s Deputy National chairman
(South). Other aspirants have started jostling for positions in the
proposed committee.
The BOT has shifted the venue
of the November meeting from Maiduguri, to Abuja, to placate the faction
led by Useni, which last week kicked against the decision to hold the NEC
meeting in the Borno State capital.
But the decision of board may
aggravate the party squabbles. For one, Etiebet is not in agreement; and
it will likely polarise the South East and other zones where some party
members, who are not happy with the role of the governors, are already
defecting into the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
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