Court Bars PDP From Sacking Damagum As Faction Appoints His Replacement
A new twist has been added to the PDP Crises as Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja has restrained the National Executive Committee (NEC) and Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party from removing Umar Damagum as the Acting National Chairman of the party.
Didactic Information Hut recalls that a faction of the NWC had suspended Damagum and National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu.
But Justice Lifu’s order include that no other person must be recognised as PDP national chairman other than Damagum until the national convention of the party scheduled for December next year.
This followed a suit instituted by Senator Umar El-Gash Maina, who claims to be chairman of PDP in Yobe State. Maina alleged that some stakeholders of the party have been holding clandestine meetings to forcefully remove Damagum from office in gross violation of the party’s constitution.
The judge held that in line with Articles 42, 47, and 67 of PDP, it is only at the national convention of the party that national officers can be elected.
According to Justice Lifu, the PDP members are bound by the constitution of the party and as such must always act in line with the provisions and obedience to the party’s law.
In the suit instituted on Maina’s behalf by Joshua Musa, SAN, the plaintiff therefore prayed the court to invoke articles 45, 47, and 67 of the PDP Constitution to stop the move to replace Damagum as the acting national chairman.
Justice Lifu held that the plaintiff predicated his suit on the protection of the PDP Constitution from being violated and the northern region where he hailed from being shortchanged from the four-year tenure.
Justice Lifu said the plaintiff had sufficient interest and justiciable cause to institute the case having displayed his PDP membership card before the court and having raised the fundamental issue of protection of PDP’s Constitution.
Meanwhile, the faction of the PDP known as the integrity faction on Friday announced the appointment of Yayari Ahmed Mohammed as acting National Chairman.
Hon Debo Ologunagba, the suspended Spokesperson of PDP who now represents the integrity group, stated that Mohammed’s appointment takes effect immediately and is in line with the PDP’s amended constitution from 2017.
The statement read in part “Following the suspension of His Excellency, Ambassador Illiya Damagum as the Acting National Chairman of our great Party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the National Working Committee (NWC) has approved the appointment of Alhaji Yayari Ahmed Mohammed as the Acting National Chairman.
“The appointment which takes immediate effect is pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution of the PDP (as amended in 2017)
“The NWC calls on all Organs, leaders, critical stakeholder,s and members of our great Party to remain focused at this critical time especially as the NWC commences arrangements towards the holding of the Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting already scheduled for Thursday, 24th October, 2024.”
