APC crisis: Protesters storm Ambode’s office, demand expulsion of Banire

Supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from Mushin local government area trooped to the office of Akinwunmi Ambode, governor of Lagos, on Tuesday, to demand the removal of Muiz Banire, national legal adviser of the party.

Security operatives had a tough time controlling the protesters, who came in their hundreds.

The protesters, who wielded different placards, accused Banire of anti-party activities and alleged embezzlement of campaign funds.

The protesters led by a chieftain of the party in the area, Femi Martins, said they were constrained to make the demand owing to Banire’s several excesses and public utterances which were aimed at causing public disaffection and electoral misfortune against the party, particularly during the forthcoming local government election in the state.

Some of the inscriptions on their placards were ‘Enough Is Enough, Banire Must Go’; ‘Banire, Custodian Of Party Destruction’; ‘Banire, The Greatest Beneficiary Of Imposition’; ‘Banire, A Hypocrite Par Excellence’; ‘Banire, The Modern-Day Judas Iscariot’; ‘Banire Is Unqualified To Teach Us Democracy’, among others.

Reading from a protest letter, Martins said as custodian of the party’s constitution, Banire was well aware of the party’s provisions for direct, indirect and consensus primaries, but he has played to the gallery and publicly accused the party of imposition without exhausting the internal mechanisms already available within the party.

He said Banire, after the primary of the party in Mushin and Odi Olowo, has been sponsoring his cronies to write and publish advertorials against the party, and has been granting interviews to embarrass and have adverse effect on the party to the extent of attracting hatred, contempt, ridicule and disrepute upon the Party.

“If you look around, you will see some elderly people. Are they also rented? These are people that are fed up of Banire’s group and himself. He (Banire) has been in power in Mushin for over 12 years and there has been no development. Rather, Mushin has been known to be a violent place; they have embezzled our funds; they even embezzled funds meant for campaigns,” he said.

“Go to the library named after him, Muiz Banire Library. You cannot see a single notebook there not to talk of a book. No furnishing there whatsoever and they made us believe that they have spent hundreds of millions on that. That is what the people are saying. They are saying they are tired of no development and no to few people distributing our commonwealth among themselves. That is what the protest is all about.”

Receiving the letter on behalf of governor, Kehinde Bamigbetan, special adviser to the governor on communities and communication, commended the protesters for their peaceful conduct.

He assured them that the letter would be forwarded to both the state and national organs of the party.

While insisting that party’s rules and regulations must be enforced, Bamigbetan urged the national leadership of APC to follow the precedent set in the case of Timi Frank, former deputy national publicity secretary, and set up a disciplinary committee to adjudicate on the allegations against Banire.

“We ourselves have been embarrassed by the infantile vituperations of a career opportunist who has exploited the platform of the Asiwaju movement to get to where he is today. It is our responsibility to support your quest for justice and discipline within the party,” he said.

“We have a precedent when Timi Frank was disciplined and his offence was that he went out of the party’s communication system to embarrass the party.

“He was suspended and recommended for expulsion. What else can we now say that a National Legal Adviser of the party who ought to know the limitations of the law, who ought to know that just as there is internal party democracy there is also internal party communication system and for him to have gone out of the party system to demoralise our party members, to embarrass the party and to undermine the fortunes of the party at a time when we are in the middle of an election season, there is no greater grievous offence than that.”

On Monday, Banire alleged that Seyi Oladejo, a commissioner in the state, had concluded plans to mobilise a rally against him for his principled stance against imposition of candidates in the APC.

“We ourselves have been embarrassed by the infantile vituperations of a career opportunist who has exploited the platform of the Asiwaju movement to get to where he is today. It is our responsibility to support your quest for justice and discipline within the party,” he said.

“We have a precedent when Timi Frank was disciplined and his offence was that he went out of the party’s communication system to embarrass the party.

“He was suspended and recommended for expulsion. What else can we now say that a National Legal Adviser of the party who ought to know the limitations of the law, who ought to know that just as there is internal party democracy there is also internal party communication system and for him to have gone out of the party system to demoralise our party members, to embarrass the party and to undermine the fortunes of the party at a time when we are in the middle of an election season, there is no greater grievous offence than that.”

On Monday, Banire alleged that Seyi Oladejo, a commissioner in the state, had concluded plans to mobilise a rally against him for his principled stance against imposition of candidates in the APC.