A former national legal adviser of Nigeria’s ruling party has accused the party’s chairman of ruining it and asked him to “step aside”

Muiz Banire said Adams Oshiomhole’s consolidation of powers in himself stifled due process and created room for an improper screening of party candidates in past elections.

“Lust as the national chairman was the chairman of the appeal body of the party for the complaints from primaries, he equally headed the appeal screening committee from which appeals arising from the screening exercises terminated,” Banire said in an opinion piece on Thursday.

“The deliberate fusion of these vital responsibilities in one man must also reflect the standards expected of him.”

Banire stopped short of calling for Oshiomhole’s resignation, describing him as a failure.

He blamed the party chairman for the Supreme Court’s sacking of APC’s David Lyon, a day before he was sworn as the governor of Bayelsa. The court said Lyon’s running mate Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo presented a fake certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

People’s Democratic Party’s Duoye Diri was declared the winner and has since been sworn in.

Oshiomhole, who Banire blamed for the Bayelsa debacle, said Diri should not have been sworn in because he did not meet the constitutional requirements.

But Banire insisted APC lacks discipline under Oshiomhole.

APC was prevented from presenting governorship candidates in Zamfara and Rivers state.

Moreover, all the party’s candidates in the federal and state legislative elections were sacked by the Supreme Court.

And the party chair is currently enmeshed in a faceoff with the governor of his state Godwin Obaseki. Their public spar has polarised the party in Edo State.

“The woes suffered by APC in Zamfara, Rivers, Bayelsa and several others in which elections were lost were substantially due to the infraction of internal democracy and party discipline,” Banire said.

He said the party needs urgent restructuring to halt the “apparent painful failures and the degree of fractionalization within.”

“I appeal to the chairman to honourably step aside. The party needs urgent reorganization towards strengthening its capacities and doing the right thing,” he said.