BREAKING: Court dismisses Bamanga Tukur’s suit seeking reinstatement as PDP chairman

BREAKING: Court dismisses Bamanga Tukur’s suit seeking reinstatement as PDP Chairman 

The Federal High Court in Abuja has

dismissed a suit filed by a former

Chairman of the governing Peoples

Democratic Party [PDP] Bamanga Tukur,

seeking the removal of his successor,

Adamu Muazu, as the incumbent

chairman of the party.

The trial judge, Justice Evoh Chukwu,

dismissed the case on Tuesday morning

after hearing arguments by parties to

the matter.

Details of the judgment will come in our

subsequent updates.

Mr. Tukur had in November dramatically

joined a suit seeking to oust Mr. Mu’azu

as the national chairman of the PDP, and

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 who

was merely appointed to the job by the

party’s National Executive Committee.

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 a stoppage of 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, were 1st and 3rd

respondents.

However, in a counter-claim filed at the

court registry by his counsel, Adamson

Adeboro, 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.

SOURCE : Premium Times