Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

The administrative crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) deepened on Tuesday as the party’s Forum of State Chairmen denied passing a vote of confidence endorsing the continuation of Adams Oshiomhole as the party’s national chairman.

The forum, in a statement issued by its publicity secretary, Lawal Liman, revealed that the members had, however, scheduled a meeting to harmonise their thought before the March 17 emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.

The other faction of the forum had on Monday, passed a vote of confidence on the embattled national chairman through a statement allegedly signed by the forum’s chairman, Ali Bukar Dalori and the secretary, Dr. Ben Nwoye.

However, dismissing the confidence vote, the publicity secretary dissociated the forum from the fraudulent vote of confidence on the suspended APC national chairman, Oshiomhole.

Insisting that there was no such decision reached by the forum, the spokesperson argued that the house never met to decide on such a sensitive issue.

He said that they will meet before the NEC meeting, scheduled for next week, Tuesday, March 17, 2020, frowning that some members of the forum had been calling to find out the veracity of the statement as soon as they saw the statement.

“l have told them that no such thing happened and that they should disregard the statement.

“We had agreed, in the past, that nobody should issue a statement, in the name of the forum, if the chairmen did not meet and accept the release of such a statement,” Liman said.

On the court order suspending the APC national chairman, Liman said that they would enjoin all party members to wait for the outcome of the court cases.

He further charged members to exercise patience, with the hope that the crisis, in the party, would soon be resolved.

“l want to confirm to my colleagues that there was no meeting held and there was no statement issued to pass a vote of confidence on the national chairman.

“All issues would be resolved at the next NEC meeting and, hopefully, we will hold a meeting of the forum before the said NEC meeting.

“We will not, in any way, bring the name of the forum to disrepute by doing what will take away our credibility,” he said.