A federal high court in Abuja has restrained the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from replacing Umar Damagum as the acting chairman.
The suit, marked FCH/ABJ/CS/579/2024, was filed by Umar
El-Gash Maina and Zanna Mustapha Gaddama on May 2.
The respondents in the suit are the PDP, the national
working committee (NWC), the national executive committee (NEC), the PDP board
of trustees (BoT), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Delivering a ruling on the motion ex parte on May 3, Peter
Lifu, the presiding judge, made an interim order restraining the respondents
from nominating anybody to replace Damagum, pending the determination of the
motion on notice.
“The
defendants/respondents are hereby restrained in the interim from appointing,
selecting, or nominating any person to replace Amb. Umar Illiya Damagum as
national chairman or acting national chairman of the 1st defendant/respondent
pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filed,
which is herein fixed against the 14th of May, 2024,” the judge ruled.
“The defendants/respondents, by themselves, agents, privies,
or by any proxy, are hereby in the interim restrained from, according to
recognition, any person other than Amb. Umar Illiya Damagum as acting national
chairman of the 1st defendants/respondents or giving effect to or acting upon
any document purporting to be signed by the national chairman or acting
national chairman of the 1st defendant without the name and signature of Amb.
Umar Illiya Damagum pending the hearing and determination of the motion on
notice already filed in court in the instant suit.
“The applicants are herein ordered to enter into a fresh
undertaking to pay damages to the respondents (to be assessed by the court) if,
at the end of the day, it is discovered that this order ought not to have been
granted or that the honourable court was misled into granting the same.”
The court adjourned the case to May 14 for a hearing of the
motion on notice.
Damagum became acting chairman of the PDP following the
suspension of Iyorchia Ayu in March 2023.
Before the NEC meeting in April, PDP members loyal to Atiku
Abubakar, the former vice-president, had moved against Damagum over allegations
that he was working for Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory
(FCT).
Those demanding Damagum’s resignation also argued that there
was a need for someone from the north-central to take over and complete Ayu’s
tenure.
However, Wike, who holds a significant influence in the
party, had been pushing for Damagum to continue in his position.
On April 18, the NWC of the PDP passed a vote of confidence
in Damagum.
Debo Ologunagba, the party’s spokesperson, said the issue of
whether Damagum should remain or be removed from office has been deferred.
Ologunagba said Damagum would continue as acting national
chairman of the PDP until the next NEC meeting.
The party’s constitution mandates that the NEC meeting be
convened once every three months.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com