Tukur Seeks Reinstatement as PDP National Chairman

Source:Premium times

There was a dramatic twist to the suit seeking to oust Adamu Mu’azu as the national chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Wednesday, as his predecessor, Bamanga Tukur, demanded his reinstatement to the job.


Mr. Tukur resigned from office in
January following campaigns mounted
by party members that he should do so
barely two years after his election at its
convention in March 2012.

He was succeeded by Mr. Mu’azu.
But a member of the PDP, Aliyu Gurin,
recently filed a suit at the Federal High
Court, Abuja, seeking Mr. Mu’azu’s sack
and also to stop the party’s coming
delegates’ convention slated for
December 11 and 12.

Mr. Gurin, a House of Representatives
aspirant from Adamawa State,
contended that Mr. Tukur’s resignation
did not comply with the provision of
Section 47(5) of the constitution of the
party.

The section stipulates that a 30-day
notice be given to the National Executive
Committee by a national chairman
resigning from office.

Mr. Tukur was joined as second
defendant in the suit while Mr. Mu’azu
and the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, are 1st and 3rd
respondents.

However, in a counter-claim filed at the
court registry by his counsel, Adamson
Adeboro on Wednesday, Mr. Tukur
asked the court to grant an order to
allow him return to office until 2016
when his four-year tenure ought to have
expired.

The former national chairman argued
that he was forced to quit the job to pave
way for the return of some governors
who defected from the PDP to the All
Progressives Congress, APC, to return to
the ruling party.

The governors are Rotimi Amaechi
(Rivers), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara),
Rabi’u Kwankwaso (Kano), Aliyu
Wamakko (Sokoto) and Murtala Nyako
(Adamawa).

Mr. Tukur, a former governor of the old
Gongola State, said following the
defection of the governors, the PDP
leader, President Goodluck Jonathan
came under pressure to sack him as
national chairman to enable them come
back.

He asked for an order to set aside his
purported resignation letter of January
15 and restore him to his job as
substantive and duly-elected chairman
of the PDP.

He also asked the court to stop the PDP
and the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, from further
“recognizing, permitting or allowing
Mu’azu to preside over the affairs of the
party”.

Mr. Tukur asked the court to declare his
resignation and the appointment of Mr.
Mu’azu null and void in line with
Section 45(1) and (2) of the PDP
constitution.

The former PDP national chairman had
earlier asked the court to determine
whether his purported resignation was
in conjunction with Section 47(5) of the
party’s constitution as amended.

He further asked the court to decide if
Mu’azu’s appointment contravened
Section 45(1) and (2) of the party
constitution, Section 85(3) of the
Electoral Act 2010 and Section 223(1) of
the 1999 Constitution.

In a seven-paragraph affidavit in
support of the counter claim deposed to
by one Femi Ekperobe, the former
national chairman said he stepped aside
to enable the defected governors return,
but that to his chagring, they are yet to
do so 10 months after.

Mr. Tukur said even if he were to resign
following pressure mounted on him, the
party’s constitution demands that he
should hand over to his deputy, who will
act as national chairman pending the
convening of a national convention
where a substantive national chairman
would now be elected.

He insisted that the National Executive
Committee, NEC, of the party lacked the
power to appoint the national chairman.
According to him, the votes and
proceedings of the NEC meeting of
January 15, the day he resigned, were a
nullity.

He said his letter of resignation
contravened Section 47 (5) of the PDP
constitution.
Mr. Tukur said Mr. Mu’azu lacked the
power to preside over the coming
convention.

The former national chairman, however,
said it would be in the interest of all
parties if status quo ante bellum was
maintained, pending the coming
convention during which a new
chairman would be elected.
The trial judge, Justice Evoh Chukwu, will
hear Mr. Tukur’s request on Thursday.