TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE DELIVERED BY DR. FREDERICK FASEHUN, NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF THE UNITY PARTY OF NIGERIA (UPN), IN LAGOS ON OCTOBER 22, 2014 Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press: Let me welcome you to this Press Conference. The Mass Media, Social Media and the Internet have been awash with reports concerning the current division in the leadership of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). This is what we have called you here to address today. The events of October 13, 2014 in Abuja, where the UPN witnessed a rowdy session and a show-of-shame during its National Executive Council Meeting, finally climaxed in the hurried adjournment of the meeting by the National Chairman, to prevent a complete breakdown of peace and order, as well as to nip violence in the bud. However, after the meeting had been adjourned, a handful of misguided officers reconvened to hold illegal proceedings and thereafter announced the indefinite suspension of the National Chairman, while appointing an Acting National Chairman in the person of Dr. Abubakar Manzo, the Deputy National Chairman. THE ILLEGALITIES First and foremost, that purported NEC meeting of 13th October 2014 did not conform to the UPN Constitution, which stipulates in Article III, Section 4(2) that: The Council shall meet once every quarter at such time and place as may be prescribed by the National Secretary on the direction of the National Chairman of the Party. Also, Article V, Section 1(2) of the UPN Constitution dictates that: The National Secretary of the Party shall keep proper records of all proceedings and minutes of the meetings. He/she shall summon meetings at the direction of the Chairman of the Party. Clearly, in these two portions of the UPN Constitution, it is the responsibility of the National Chairman of the party to direct the National Secretary to arrange for meetings of officers. That is what the UPN Constitution says; and the UPN Constitution was not drafted by the Chairman. However, in the case of that particular NEC Meeting, the National Chairman was compelled to attend a meeting he did not mandate the National Secretary to call, a condition precedent for determining the legality of a NEC Meeting. Despite this malicious usurpation of the National Chairman’s authority, I conceded in order to have a chance to educate the house on the impropriety of the meeting and allow peace to govern UPN. For record purposes, the last legal, legitimate and constitutional UPN NEC Meeting was that held on August 7 and 8, 2014. We had adjourned to 18th and 19th September 2014. But that date became unrealistic because the National Treasurer informed me 48 hours to the meeting that the party lacked logistics to cater for the meeting. I conveyed this dilemma to the National Secretary and my Deputy National Chairman by phone, and we all agreed to postpone the meeting. This decision on postponement was anything but unilateral. Based on consensus, we began to inform all party officers and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of the postponement, and thereafter we chose a new date, October 9 and 10, 2014. However, the National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Bari Adedeji Salau, without notifying me, secured an undisclosed sum of money from a donor and insisted that the meeting must go on. He quickly co-opted the National Secretary, Alhaji Sokoto Abubakar, and the Deputy National Chairman, Dr. Manzo Abubakar, into his scheme and they decided to back down from the earlier agreed postponement. These people convened that NEC Meeting attended by a handful of UPN officers, but a great number of officers complied with the notice of postponement. Participants in that illegal NEC Meeting reached some unpopular decisions. For example, they passed a vote-of-no-confidence on the party leadership; and in a very curious, infantile, unintelligent and illegal manner, they proclaimed the sponsor of that meeting, Mr. Rotimi Paseda, as the UPN Governorship Candidate in Ogun State. The National Secretary, Alhaji Sokoto Abubakar, would later refuse to invite officers to the postponed 3rd UPN NEC Meeting that I, as the National Chairman in line with constitutional provisions, fixed for October 9 and 10, 2014. Instead, Sokoto summoned what he called a “4th NEC Meeting” for October 13, 2014. Clearly, we had a constitutional crisis on our hands. Alhaji Sokoto’s failure to invite honourable NEC members for October 9 and 10 was clearly in contempt and in violation of the quoted sections of the UPN Constitution, mandating the National Chairman to direct the National Secretary to call a NEC Meeting. This, in a nutshell, captures the insult, insubordination and illegality that the National Chairman experienced at the hands of these incorrigible party officers. THE CORRUPTION ANGLE Suffice to say, there is a corruption angle to all this. Let me quickly summarise that aspect in the few lines following. When the party lacked the wherewithal to sponsor the 2nd NEC Meeting on August 7 and 8, the National Chairman, in agreement with key officers like the National Secretary and the Deputy National Chairman, pleaded with officers to attend at their own expense. Surprisingly, a clique of National Officers (under the supervision of Mr. Tunji Olateju, the National Organising Secretary), undertook the uncharitable and unprecedented enterprise of distributing to a selection of officers present in Abuja stipends purportedly covering their transportation, accommodation and feeding. Investigation would later reveal that the resources had been provided by Mr. Rotimi Paseda, National Ex-Officio and Governorship Aspirant in Ogun State. The existence of this money (including the formula for disbursement) was not made known to relevant officers of the party, including the National Chairman, the Auditor, the Treasurer, the Financial Secretary and the Director of Finance. Other delegates were deprived of this reimbursement for unknown reasons. Clearly, the iniquitous, divide-and-rule pattern of this distribution of funds by Mr. Olateju was mean, malicious and divisive. Furthermore, the handling of the funds blatantly violated extant rules laid by INEC in the demand for party transparency and accountability and the Commission’s oversight on the parties. Section 89 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010 says: Every political party shall submit to the Commission a detailed annual statement of Assets and liabilities and analysis of its sources of funds and other assets, together with statement of its expenditure in such a form as the Commission may from time to time require. INEC (in the Political Party Financial Reporting Manual 2011) also requires that all forms submitted to the Commission regarding the party’s financial report must be signed by the political party’s Financial Secretary, the Chairman and the Auditor. Fulfilment of this extant requirement is being rendered impossible as none of these relevant principal officers has information regarding the handling of the donation towards the meeting of August 7 and 8 as well as other donations. In addition, it violated the UPN Constitution in Article V, Section 1 (4) stipulating as follows: The National Treasurer shall be responsible for ensuring that all monies received by the Party are properly accounted for and all monies spent duly authorised. He/she shall advise the National Convention or the State Congress as the case may be from time to time in all financial matters and keep them fully informed of the financial position of the Party, and also on the steps to be taken to ensure that the Party is able to fulfil all its financial obligations. It was also an exercise in corruption because Mr. Olateju declared only N2 million to his cohorts, while the donor, Mr. Rotimi Paseda, would later tell me that he made provision for N4.2 million. This matter generated much acrimony throughout the party hierarchy. AFTERMATH OF UPN’S LAST NEC MEETING First and foremost, UPN’s last NEC Meeting that held on 13th October 2014 exposed to the whole world the existence and operation of moles in UPN. This group acted out a script written by politicians, political interests and political parties that feel threatened by the resuscitation of UPN and are determined to destroy the party. Their ultimate objective is to procure the dismembering of UPN by first decapitating the party through the elimination of its Honourable National Chairman. These malevolent elements have demonstrated clearly that they hold the person, the office and the authority of the UPN National Chairman in contempt. Through their open disregard for the UPN Constitution this past year, they have held the entire party to ransom. Their recurring acts of indiscipline, disrespect, insubordination and corruption, have finally climaxed in this vain and futile announcement of the unconstitutional suspension of Dr. Frederick Fasehun as the party’s leader. Against this background, it is easy to see that the UPN national leadership has split into two, and one group has decided to appoint a leader, or leaders, for itself and move on. Clearly, they have the constitutional right to so do –going by the RIGHT TO PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY AND ASSOCIATION guaranteed them in Section 40 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution. Ladies and Gentlemen, what these Fifth Columnists have now demonstrated is that they neither want to associate with nor remain in the same party with other law-abiding officers in the UPN National Executive Council, including the National Chairman. We respect their resolve and their resolution to leave the party. They leave of their own volition. And on behalf of the UPN National Executive Council and UPN members nationwide, we hereby wish them well in their future endeavours. For us, the dedicated, committed and bonafide members of the UPN NEC, the exit of these Fifth Columnists is good riddance to bad rubbish. A political party is the agglomeration of people with common ideas and ideals. And those ideals must transcend personal or selfish interests. Those who feel that their interests cannot be actualized in one party reserve the Fundamental Human Right to take their exit. Fortunately, they have 26 alternative registered political parties through which they can freely peddle their politics. We are sure other parties will welcome them with open arms. PROFILE OF THE FIFTH COLUMNISTS The forces of rebellion and discord within UPN have as commander-in-chief the National Organising Secretary, Mr. Tunji Olateju, and the National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Bari Adedeji Salau, who finally brought the National Secretary, the Deputy National Chairman and a supposed Governorship Aspirant in Ogun State, Mr. Rotimi Paseda, into their evil circle. They hijacked several donations (that should normally come into the party’s coffers through the National Treasurer), donations that they never accounted for. They severally violated due process, accountability and transparency as enshrined in the UPN Constitution, INEC regulations and the Nigerian Constitution, but only a few instances will suffice here: 1. The National Organising Secretary, Mr. Olateju, and the National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Salau, without prior knowledge of other leaders, unilaterally took UPN, a party known for egalitarianism and welfarism, and collected money from a former Vice President in an apparent move to sell the then unregistered party; this was an earlier pointer to their trail of dishonesty. 2. The National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Salau, collected from a donor, Mr. Rotimi Paseda, the sum of N5.6 million for some publicity programmes, and he failed to declare the donation to relevant officers of the party. 3. The National Organising Secretary, Mr. Olateju, embarked on unilateral printing of Membership Registers, and not only did he fail to inform the National Executive about them, he failed to allocate the register to state and local government chapters failing to dance to his tune. 4. The National Organising Secretary collected and mismanaged the sum of N4.2 million from Mr. Paseda for the purpose of the Second NEC Meeting in August 2014 and refused to disclose this to the relevant national officers. 5. The dissidents unilaterally declared as vacant the positions of National Auditor, National Youth Leader, National Financial Secretary, National Women’s Leader, and despite protests and counseling by the National Chairman and other members to the contrary, they have insisted on sacking the Chairmen of the UPN Chapters in Ogun, Lagos, Delta and some other states. 6. About six reconciliation meetings have been called to address these problems, and while the National Chairman attended ALL these meetings, one or more of them would usually find excuses to absent. All agreements we reached during any reconciliation they quickly breached. DR. FASEHUN’S UPN JOURNEY When in 2013 I bought into the idea of resuscitating the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), I put on the line the totality of my existence. I knew there would be a price to pay. And indeed, the UPN project has taken its toll on all aspects of my life, including: My sociopolitical group –the OPC– which I spent the last 20 years to build and sustain, my personal finances, my business, my time, my home, my socio-political space and associates, my network of friends and contacts, my health and my peace. No one else, and I repeat, no one else in the entire sphere of UPN has paid the price I have paid. But I have put my hand on the plough and I will not look back. Even then, I salute the inspirited initiative first brokered by Mr. Tunji Olateju and Alhaji Bari Adedeji Salau. It was a lofty idea. It was a chance to resuscitate the spirit of welfarism, that driving force that propelled Nigeria’s founding fathers to originally move the struggle for independence. In the 21st Century, UPN was a child of necessity. Nigeria’s political space has been dominated and monopolised by rapacious locusts and cankerworms that are only interested in ripping off the people’s commonwealth. And a party, proclaiming the Awoist spirit of EGALITARIANISM and SOCIAL-WELFARISM, a party whose FOUR-CARDINAL PROGRAMMES people recalled with nostalgia, offered hope. But my partners underestimated my passion to give Nigeria a truly democratic party built on integrity, a party that would at last be of the people, by the people, for the people. And even as I tried to wean these my associates from their selfish, mercantile and Machiavellian objective, they revolted. These masked vampires began to bare their fangs and display their true colours. They revealed themselves as political bastards seeking adoption into the house of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, but nothing of the old man flowed in their evil genes –nothing of his welfarism, nothing of his integrity, nothing of his altruism, nothing of his nationalism, nothing of his patriotism, nothing of his dignity, nothing of his passion for social service. Unlike Awo, these fly-by-night moonlighters are only interested in raiding the treasury and waylaying resources that should help run and sustain the party. And they have found one significant victim or ally, one deep-pocketed fool, whose real motives will hopefully be revealed with time. WAY FORWARD Distinguished Friends from the Press, you will call to mind the vitriolic media attacks launched against OPC, UPN and my person by APC agents spearheaded by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that party’s spokesman, when news of the resuscitation of our legacy party first went out. It is clear now that the dissidents in UPN are working with a well-financed APC mole planted in-house to provoke the implosion of UPN. However, we the loyal and patriotic members of the UPN NEC, have together determined that such an Agents Provocateur shall never succeed in their evil scheme to destroy UPN. Therefore, we are resolved to sustain and run the party. UPN will undergo a restructuring, with positions peopled by officers who are ready to abide by the spirit and letter of the UPN Constitution, and who are willing and capable of demonstrating the discipline, dignity and integrity established by the party’s founding patriarchs. So help us God. THREATS OF VIOLENCE Meanwhile, information has reached us that paid agents of these dissidents will launch attacks on party loyalists. We urge these strangers to peace and enemies of progress in their own best interest to drop any such idea and sheathe their swords. Nobody has a monopoly of violence. Although we shall not go out of our way to initiate attacks on any one, we must warn that we shall not fold our arms and watch forces of evil harass our members and associates. We shall defend ourselves and we promise to return fire-for-fire. MR. TONY PREST We seize this opportunity to announce that Mr. Tony Prest has become the first aspirant to purchase the nomination form of UPN for N2.5 million. Mr. Prest will be contesting the primaries and hopefully the governorship election in Delta State. We extend our hand of fellowship to him. However, in line with Due Process, the party’s Constitution and INEC Guidelines, he will go through the primaries in UPN Delta State. We wish him the best. Ladies and Gentlemen: Thank you.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 06:07:47 +0000
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