Benue APC crisis deepens as Agada-led exco sues Ganduje for contempt

The crisis rocking the Benue State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is far from over, as the dissolved state executive members of the party, led by Hon. Augustine Agada, have dragged the party’s National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, to court over disobedience of a court order.

The Benue State High Court, presided over by Justice Theresa Igoche, had on Wednesday ordered the APC NWC not to dissolve the Benue State chapter executive led by Agada.

However, late on Wednesday, the Ganduje-led NWC proceeded with the dissolution in disobedience of the court order.

On Thursday, Agada, alongside eight others, approached a Benue State High Court to file contempt charges against the Ganduje-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC.

In a motion on notice, No: MHC/1585/M/2024, the Agada-led Benue exco prayed the court to compel the Ganduje-led NWC to adhere to the decision not to remove them from office until the expiration of their four-year tenure.

The dissolved Benue exco also urged the court to impose punitive measures against the Ganduje-led NWC for disobeying the earlier court decision.

In an affidavit deposed by his counsel, M.T. Aiyebo, Agada insisted that the Ganduje-led NWC was duly served with the court order on Wednesday at about 4 p.m.

He added that the order restraining the APC under Ganduje was also served at the office of the National Legal Adviser at 4:02 p.m. on Wednesday at the party’s national secretariat.

Agada expressed surprise in the affidavit that, on the evening of Wednesday, August 21, 2024, at 6 p.m., the Ganduje-led NWC held a meeting where they proceeded to dissolve his executive committee and appoint a caretaker committee, in defiance of the earlier court order.

“That I saw on several television stations that same evening, around 8 p.m., and several other news media, that the Benue State Working Committee of the respondent on record has been dissolved by the respondent against whom the leave of this Honourable Court is being sought.”