By Our Correspondent
If Buba Galadima, chairman of the breakaway faction of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC thinks his job will be easy, then he underestimated his former political associates. The man who said he heads the reformed All Progressives Congress, R-APC has had his old party charging at him. He and his allies probably assumed that the leadership of the APC would called them to a negotiation table. But as far as the APC is concerned, there is nothing to discuss with the group.
Rather, Galadima, a long time associate of President Muhammadu Buhari may have a court case on his lap soon. In court, he would have to defend allegations of impersonation, forgery, treason and disruption of peace.
It appears that haven known what advantage the APC had gained from similar political move in the past, the ruling party is scared of been whipped with its cane. The legal adviser , Mr. Babatunde Ogala has hinted that the group Adams Oshiomhole , national chairman of APC says is inconsequential may be taken to court after all.
He said in his statement , “Mr. Galadima in his Press Release copiously referred to himself as the substantive Chairman of R-APC a variant of APC whilst he knows full well that there is indeed no such political party in Nigeria. Also, he also suggests that he is the substantive Chairman of APC even though he knows that Com. Adams Oshiomole is indeed the party Chairman and Mr. Galadima never contested for Chairmanship at the just concluded convention of the APC. In the circumstance, Mr. Galadima has committed the offence of impersonation as defined and punishable under Section 484 of the Criminal Code and the authorities will be requested to do their work in bringing him to account.
“To the extent that Mr. Galadima continues to perpetuate a falsehood knowing such falsehood of him forming a Political Party overnight and being Chairman either of same party or APC indeed to be untrue yet persists for the purpose of gaining either pecuniary or other benefits, he is guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation. In Ikechukwu Ikpa vs. The State (2018) 4 NWLR Part 1069 Page 175 – 240, the Supreme Court defines Fraudulent Misrepresentation to mean;
“Without a doubt, the declaration of Mr. Galadima if left unchecked is capable of leading to the public nuisance and a breach of peace across Country. Our loyal members are already agitated by the incendiary action of this group which runs counter to the beliefs, principles and creed of the APC.
“As Nigerians are aware, the coinage APC is both a mark and a copy right capable of being protected under the common law principles of passing off as well as under the extant provisions of the Copyright’s Act. Nigerians can only imagine what it would be like if we were to wake up one morning to a bank claiming to the Reformed First Bank Plc or a Construction company claiming to be the Reformed Julius Berger Plc formed by a group of its directors allegedly because they disagree with certain decisions taken at the board meeting! This will be viewed as a blatant assault on the brand for which both civil and criminal recourse can be sought.“
By this definition the new People’s Democratic Party, nPDP , from which the APC benefited greatly towards the 2015 election differs from the R-APC. Or perhaps the APC action against Galadima may be a further confirmation of the assumption by the APC that the PDP and its leadership were clueless and weak. Ogala accused the R-APC of treason, claiming that the declaration of a factional group was tantamount to a coup. What this means is that the former ruling party could be said to have been oblivious of its rights under the law.