Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, has stopped the National Executive Committee (NEC) and Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from removing Amb. Ilya Damagum as the Acting National Chairman of the party.
Justice Lifu also ordered that no other person must be recognized as PDP national chairman other than Damagum until the national convention of the party scheduled for December next year.
He issued the restraining order against PDP NEC, BoT and others while delivering judgment in a suit instituted against them by Senator Umar El-Gash Maina.
According to him, in line with Articles 42, 47 and 67 of the PDP, it is only at the National Convention of the party that national officers can be elected.
In the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/ CS/579/2024, Justice Lifu said the PDP members must obey the Constitution of the party, therefore must abide by the party’s law.
According to the plaintiff, who claimed to be Chairman of PDP in Yobe State, he instituted the suit against PDP and eight others, and accused some stakeholders of the party of holding clandestine meetings to forcefully remove Damagum from office in gross violation of the party’s Constitution.
The former Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Dr Phillip Omeiza Salawu, he said, was being pushed forward as replacement for Damagun by the stakeholders.
He said when he discovered the plan, he complaint against the clandestine meetings in two letters which he said were delivered to the national secretary of the party, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, adding that despite acknowledging receipt of the two letters, the National Secretary and BoT members failed to act on the claims.
In the suit instituted on his behalf by Joshua Musa, SAN, they asked the court to invoke articles 45, 47 and 67 of PDP Constitution to stop the move to replace Damagum as the Acting National Chairman.
They specifically demanded the court to declare that the national chairmanship of PDP is rotated between the north and south and not through any other procedure not enshrined in the PDP’s Constitution.
Justice Lifu, while agreeing with the plaintiff, said Damagum can only be replaced at the national convention of the party or through an order of a court.
According to Justice Lifu, any attempt to end the four years tenure of the northern region without the national convention of the party was an affront to the Constitution of the PDP.
Earlier, the judge had dismissed the opposition of the defendants to the suit on the grounds that the plaintiff had no locus standi to bring out the case and that the court lacked jurisdiction.
Justice Lifu held that the plaintiff predicated his suit on the protection of PDP Constitution from being violated and the northern region, where he hailed from, from being short changed from the four year tenure.
Justice Lifu said that the plaintiff having displayed his PDP membership card before the court and having raised the fundamental issue of protection of PDP’s Constitution, had sufficient interest and justiciable cause to institute the case.
The judge therefore declared that PDP NEC and BoT are bound by the party’s Constitution and that Damagum as national chairman can only be replaced through the national convention of the party.
He also held that Damagum having been appointed from the northern region where the former national chairman, Senator Iyorcha Ayu, hailed from, is entitled to serve out the remaining tenure of the national chairman
