NCP expulsions

“You Are Out to Liquidate NCP” – Lagos NCP Members Tell Obayuwana led right wing NEC

– Reject Expulsion of Sango and Suspension of Others

The State Coordinating Council (SCC) of the Lagos State Chapter of the National Conscience Party (NCP) met on Saturday August 5, 2006. The meeting, which deliberated, among other issues, on the purported expulsion of the Lagos NCP chairperson, Segun Sango, and the suspension of other NCP leaders from Lagos and Osun states by the Osagie Obayuwana led National Executive Council (NEC) was well attended by members and observers despite being called at just two days notice.

The Lagos party leaders who have been placed on indefinite suspension are Sina Odugbemi, State General Secretary; Demola Yaya, the State Research Director and Wale Balogun, Chairmanship Candidate of the party for the Mainland Local Government in Lagos State and newly elected National Deputy Chairperson (NDC) for South West. Other suspended members are Waheed Lawal, the Osun State Chairman and Alfred Adegoke, the Osun State Legal Adviser.

In attendance at the meeting were State Executive Committee members, chairpersons and secretaries of local government areas (who constitute the SCC) and other party members present as observers. Some SCC members who could not attend sent apologies.

The meeting which lasted for over four hours denounced the right wing drift and the undemocratic conducts of the Osagie Obayuwana led NEC. In an enthusiastic display of solidarity, the SCC members and observers present conducted an instant fund raising exercise so as to have a video coverage of the entire meeting, daring the witch hunters to come and expel all of them.

After thorough deliberation on the main item on the agenda, a written resolution was unanimously adopted by all SCC members at the meeting and 46 of the 47 party members present as observers. It was only Mrs. Basirat Ogunlana, who attended as a NEC member, who abstained from voting. (Click here for the a copy of the resolutions reached at the SCC meeting).

The unanimous adoption of the resolution rejecting the unconstitutional and destructive action of the quisling elements that constitute the national leadership of the party reflects the mass support and acceptance of the focused and purposeful leadership of the Lagos NCP under Segun Sango among the party members in the state.

The meeting commended the leadership quality of Sango that has made and sustained the state as the most active chapter of the party nationally. Also applauded is the effort of the Lagos state leadership aimed at making the party active at other places outside Lagos.

None of the agents of destruction in the Lagos State chapter who had earlier written a petition against Segun Sango and the DSM at behest of the NEC, attended this SCC meeting despite being invited. Their absence, however, has no effect on the resolution, since none of them holds any executive position at any level of the party in Lagos State.

Finally, the SCC and party members pledged to continue to struggle for a truly working people political alternative in collaboration with labour, pro-masses organisations/parties and those who share this aspiration. The meeting therefore called on all party officers and members throughout Lagos State to remain calm and ignore the destructive antics of the Obayuwana led national leadership. It resolved to use all legitimate political, constitutional and legal means to defeat the self-serving agenda of the Obayuwana right wing gang in its rabid plot to liquidate the party and cheaply dissolve it into ANPP, ACD, AD or any other anti-poor political party or coalition.