The deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, yesterday insisted that he remained a loyal member despite his suspension announced on Friday by the party’s South-South National Vice Chairman, Prince Hilliard Eta.
Eta had said that the Zonal Executive Committee (ZEC) suspended Frank from the party in line with Article 1 (d) and (f) of its constitution.
He faulted Frank’s argument that the ZEC lacked the constitutional power to prosecute him.
But reacting yesterday to the suspension, the APC deputy national publicity secretary stressed that he remained the acting spokesperson of the party until the appointment of a substantive head at the convention.
He said he would not be silenced and intimidated from maintaining his stand that the APC is in crisis despite denial by some people and needed the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue the party from collapse.
Frank reiterated his position that the APC would collapse before 2019 if Chief John Odigie-Oyegun remained the national chairman.
He said: “It is very clear that there is desperate move by my national chairman and his cohorts to get rid of me to enable them appoint an acting publicity secretary that will be a puppet, that will be committed and loyal to them but not to the party.
“There is a procedure to suspend me. It is very clear. It is sad that neither my national chairman nor zonal chairman happens to lead this course that they are working towards.
“First of all, I’m not a zonal officer of this party. I’m a national officer of this party. So, I see no reason why the zonal chairman will be the one to set up a committee that belongs to his friends and brothers.
“And I made it clear as soon as it was set up that I won’t attend to any committee that is not set up by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party. It is only the NEC that can set up a committee to suspend me.”
He added that “It is because I love this party, that is why I want it rescued. This party needs help. Otherwise, if this party continues like this, we would suffer in 2019. We can only win 2019 (elections) when we are united, not a divided house.
“And if the President wants to appreciate the support of Oyegun, the president has so many ways to compensate him. I will appeal to the president, if it’s possible, to appoint Oyegun as an ambassador, being a former career civil servant, he will do better as an ambassador not as national chairman.”
Last Thursday, a five-man disciplinary committee constituted by the South-South zonal leadership of the APC recommended the suspension and subsequent expulsion of Frank.
