Tukur in court, seeks order to preside over PDP convention THE suit seeking to sack the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Adamu Mu’azu, assumed a new dimension on Wednesday, as the immediate past chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, filed a suit before a Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking an order recognising and permitting him to preside over the forthcoming national convention of the party. Tukur also wants the court to grant an order allowing him to preside over the affairs of the party until 2016, when his tenure as the party’s national chairman would have expired. Tukur stated this in a counter affidavit filed at the registry of the court on Wednesday through his counsel, Adamson Adeboro, while responding to a suit instituted by an aspirant to the House of Representatives in Adamawa State, Aliyu Abuba Gurin, seeking to unseat the present national chairman of the party, Adamu Mu’azu and also stop the party’s planned delegates’ convention. The trial judge, Justice Evoh Chukwu, will this morning hear Tukur’s request. Tukur had said that he was forced to resign his post as the national chairman of the party in order for the seven defected governors to come back to the party. Tukur had further revealed that following the defection of the seven PDP governors to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013, pressures were mounted on President Goodluck Jonathan to remove him to enable the governors’ return to the party. In the counter claim filed on Wednesday, Tukur is asking the court for an order setting aside his purported resignation letter dated January 15, 2014 and reinstate him as the substantive and duly elected chairman of the party at its national convention in 2012 until the completion of his term in 2016. He also wants the court to restrain PDP and INEC from further recognising, permitting or allowing Mu’azu to preside over the affairs of the party and a declaration that his resignation was null and void and that the appointment of Mu’azu by the NEC of the party was also null and void being inconsistent with Section 45(1) and (2) of the party constitution. He had earlier asked the court to determine whether his purported resignation complies with Section 47(5) of the PDP’s constitution as amended. The counter claimant also wants the court to decide whether the appointment of Mu’azu is not in contravention of 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 the original suit, the plaintiff is asking the court to stop the planned national convention of the PDP scheduled for 10th and 11th of December, 2014. The plaintiff in the suit also contended that the resignation of the immediate past chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, did not comply with the provision of Section 47(5) of the constitution of the party which stipulates that a 30 days notice be given to the National Executive Committee by Bamanga Tukur. The defendants in the suit are the PDP, Alhaji Tukur, Mu’azu and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). tribune.ng/news/news-headlines/item/22039-tukur-in-court-seeks-order-to-preside-over-pdp-convention
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 06:12:10 +0000
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