Legal fireworks begin over APC nomination fee refund

A lawsuit filed against the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress by Sunny Moniedafe, one of the aspirants who participated in the March 26, 2022 National Convention, begins today (Monday).

This was even as the party said it was aware of the delay in payment and the legal approach.

The case will be entertained at a Federal High Court in Wuse, Abuja.

Moniedafe had dragged the party to court over its failure to refund the payment for the expression of Interest and nomination forms he obtained while vying for a seat on the party’s National Working Committee.

The aspirant, who is the arrowhead of other aggrieved aspirants, confirmed the development in an exclusive chat with The PUNCH on Saturday.

The Adamawa APC bigwig said he was compelled to file the lawsuit to recoup his nomination fee for the party as an individual party member.

He said he alongside other aggrieved aspirants found it baffling that despite the directive by former President Muhammadu Buhari to refund their money for stepping down for Senator Abdullahi Adamu and his NWC members, the ruling party had refused to reimburse them.

He said, “God knows we tried our best by not making this matter public for this long. We have written, visited and pleaded even with the current leadership of the party since Dr Abdullahi Ganduje took over.

“The last time, I went there in the company of Adebayo Shittu and some chieftains to plead with them to no avail. Having explored every option, I heard from a source at the party that all we have been doing is politics, as they have resolved not to pay.

“That was very wrong. I felt bad. How can we, as a ruling party, make promises to ourselves and not fulfil them? What examples are we setting for the followers? No, we can’t continue like this. Let the world know our plight and acknowledge that we have tried our best. It is not fair. That’s why I had to take the legal approach.

“At least, they can now come to the court and officially tell Nigerians their position. It was even because of this issue we created a platform to keep communicating with ourselves.”

The lawsuit comes two years after the aggrieved aspirants were asked to step down for the immediate past National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and other members of the NWC.

Some of the affected politicians who spoke in separate interviews told our correspondent that for two years, they had exhausted all available options to recoup their investments.

Depending on the category of the expression of interest and nomination forms, the 107 aspirants who contested various positions for the composition of the NWC were made to cough up between N20m and N25m.

At the end of the exercise, APC raked in over N700m with an additional N3bn generated among stakeholders and party members ahead of the presidential primary.

Complaints also arose that despite the huge revenue generated by the leadership of the party between March and August 2022, ad hoc workers, staff and affected party members were equally not paid their welfare allowances.

Aspirants asked to withdraw at convention

The affected aspirants who stepped down for Adamu in the category of National Chairman included Umar Al-Makura, Salihu Mustapha, Muhammed Sani Musa, Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar, George Akume and Mohammed Etsu.

Those in the category of National Deputy Chairman (North) who withdrew for the consensus candidacy of Abubakar Kyari were Yakubu Dogara, Faruq Aliyu, Sunny Sylvester Monidefe, Ken Nnamani, Malam Isa Yuguda and Emmanuel Joseph.

For the post of the National Secretary, three aspirants which included former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, Oyedele Ifeoluwa and Prof Olaiya Olaitan, were sacrificed for the candidacy of Dr Iyiola Omisore.

In the category of National Vice Chairman (South-South), Yekini Nabena and Worgu Chambers were asked to step down for Victor Giadom.

Aside from the aforementioned aspirants, 90 other politicians were also yet to be refunded.

In one of the letters written to Adamu dated June 21, 2022, and appended to 107 signatories, the aggrieved aspirants accused the party leadership of excluding them from active participation and assignments at the last party primaries for the election of various candidates.

The letter partly read, “Your Excellency, recall that President Muhammadu Buhari, in his speech at the convention, directed that for those who agreed to step down, the party should refund the money they paid for the purchase of expression of interest and nomination forms.

“For the record, it is not worthy to envisage the reality of the huge expenses we incurred in our campaigns, which amount was far beyond the cost of purchase of forms.

“While yet not being discouraged, we wish to express that we were excluded from the lists of the just concluded party primaries committee assignments for the election of our various party candidates for the general elections.”

The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, had assured The PUNCH that the matter “is receiving attention and will resolve it soon.”

However, two years down the line, the ruling party had reneged on its promise to reimburse the aspirants.

Efforts to reach Morka and the National Publicity Director of the Party, Bala Ibrahim, were unsuccessful.

As of the time of filing this story, their lines were unreachable.

APC aware of the development, says official

However, the National Deputy Organising Secretary of the APC, Nze Chidi Duru, affirmed that the party was aware of the delay in payment.

Duru also disclosed that since the case had been taken to court, it was only fair to wait for the court to adjudicate the matter.

“If anyone is aggrieved over a matter he feels could be ventilated in the law court, he is more than welcome to present it and await the judicial interpretation.

“I am also aware that the man in question, Sunny Moniedafe, has also come to the secretariat on this same subject matter. So it is not a matter that is not known to me or the party.

“I know there is a school of thought that says you can contest if you have purchased the form, subject to whether you win or lose.

“There is another school of thought that says if there is an agreement or understanding to the effect that you step down and don’t go to court, the party should compensate you and reinstate you to the status quo.

“That is how you were before buying the form. So these are issues I believe the court will one way or the other give a decision on how to proceed.”

Failure to refund immoral – Shittu

In a separate phone conversation on Saturday, former communications minister, Adebayo Shittu, described the APC’s refusal to refund the fees as immoral.

Shittu told our correspondent that he was disappointed, despite the assurances from the party, especially during the Adamu era.

“This has been a recurring thing in the APC and I find it disturbing. I once ran for a governorship ticket and got disqualified without justification.

“Again, I ran for the post of national secretary in the NWC. But the former president begged me and others to withdraw for their anointed candidates.

“The question is, if you pleaded with me to step down from the race, shouldn’t I be refunded for the nomination form I bought? It is immoral,” he lamented.