The Supreme Court on Wednesday
upheld the election of a former Kaduna State governor, Ahmed Makarfi, as the
authentic chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, after a protracted
legal battle that ruptured the unity of the party.
A three-member panel of the court
presided by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, upbraided Mr.
Makarfi’s contender, Ali Sheriff, for demonstrating “infantile desperation to
lead the party.”
Reading out the judgement after
weeks of compilation, a member of the panel, Rhodes Vivour, said Mr. Sheriff
was not within the category of an ‘unimpeachable leader’, stressing that the
removal of the former governor was not necessarily expected to follow a vote of
no confidence.
Mr. Vivour added that there was
no clause in the constitution of the party that made it mandatory for Mr.
Sheriff to be removed’ using a vote of no confidence.
“He demonstrated an infantile
desperation to lead the PDP by filing almost 10 different applications in
various courts. They shall forever gather dust in judicial archives,” the judge
said, referring to the various applications filed by Mr Sheriff regarding the
matter over the last few months of intense legal wrangling.
Mr. Vivour cited relevant sections
of the PDP constitution which made it imperative for members of the party to
respect the proceedings of the PDP national convention.
“The subject matter in the issue
is Article 33; 35 and 47,’’ said Mr. Vivour, who then went ahead to state the
contents of the aforementioned articles.
“There shall be a national
convention. All members of the party shall be bound by the decisions of leaders
from the National convention. Article 33 states the supremacy of the National
convention.”
Mr. Vivour added that the PDP
constitution allows the deputy national leader of the party to stand in for his
principal adding that “when Mr Sheriff abandoned the national convention in May
2016, the party asked his deputy to stand in for him, making his attendance
noted at the convention.”
The apex court further said that
although the PDP constitution allows the party to remove the National leader
after two years through a vote of no confidence, the word used to denote Vote
of no confidence was ‘may’, which does not signify compulsory adherence.
“May is not the same thing as
shall,” therefore “a national officer could be removed without a vote of no
confidence.”
“There can be no doubt that the
National convention has enormous powers over the party,” said Mr. Vivour, who
thus faulted the lower court for declaring the conduct of the national
convention as illegal.
The apex court subsequently
ordered Mr. Sheriff to pay a fine of N250,000 for abuse of court processes.
A long-drawn battle
The rift between both leaders of
the party began with a ruling of a Federal High Court in Lagos on May 17
2016, which resulted in contrasting court judgements which subsequently led to
troubled days for the PDP and led to the loss of many members of the former
ruling party.
In the said ruling, the Federal
High Court, FHC, in Lagos gave an order restraining the PDP from conducting
election into some national offices at the National Convention that was to be
held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State that month.
But shortly before the date of
the said convention on May 21, the PDP received a different judgement from
another FHC in Port Harcourt allowing the convention to hold as scheduled.
After the meeting, on May 25, two
courts in Lagos and Port Harcourt gave conflicting judgements: one allowing,
the other nullifying the proceedings of the meeting.
Then on August 15, Justice
Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, gave an order
suspending a planned national convention of the PDP on August 17, after the
Port Harcourt branch of the same court gave an order compelling the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the police to ensure the conduct of
the convention.
After months of traversing the
trial courts, the Sheriff faction approached the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt
to contest a decision of the lower court which on July 4, 2016 affirmed the
emergence of Mr. Makarfi as the authentic leader of the PDP during the May 21
convention of the party.
Again, on February 17, the
Port-Harcourt Division of the Appeal Court upturned the decision of the lower
court and affirmed the appointment of Mr. Sheriff as the authentic leader of
the party.
After that judgement, the Makarfi-led
faction approached the Supreme Court in what could be regarded as last
ditch effort to wrest control of the party from Mr. Sheriff.
The move appears to have paid
off.
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Lagos high Court and Abuja high Court which one is superior than the other? ??.somebody should help with authentic facts. Because the judgment looks like ======= in proxy.
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DeleteThey are equal
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