Court stops PDP National Convention, story from daily trust

A court in Abuja yesterday ordered the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) not to hold its planned national convention which has been scheduled for August 31 to fill in vacant positions of national officers. In a ruling over a case instituted by three aggrieved party members, Justice Suleiman Belgore of the Federal Capital Territory High Court also said the PDP ought not to have appointed acting officials into the National Working Committee while this case was pending. Three PDP members—Abba Yale, Yahaya Sule and Bashir Maidugu— instituted the court case earlier in the year seeking the sack of members of the NWC whose election in the March 2012 convention was questioned by a report of the Independent National Electoral Commission. The case was pending when the affected NWC officers resigned and the national executive committee of the party appointed acting officials in their place. Following this, PDP set up a committee led by Prof. Jerry Gana to hold a mini-national convention to elect substantive officers for the vacant positions. But Justice Belgore yesterday directed the PDP leadership to “allow sanity to reign” and refrain from conducting any form of convention “whether special or ordinary,” for the purpose of electing any officer into NWC pending the determination of the suit. He also frowned at the action of the PDP of fixing the convention despite the pendency of the suit, saying it amounted to pre-empting the outcome of the case and undermining the powers of the court. PDP had filed an application challenging the jurisdiction of the court, with the party’s counsel Onyechi Ikpeazu arguing that names of the affected NWC members had been removed from the case given that they had resigned, and so the case could not be judicially determined. But Justice Belore said issues for determination are whether the PDP acted legally, based on the provisions of Article 3 of the party’s constitution, in the appointment of its national officers, and whether the court could nullify the said appointments and compel the party to conduct fresh convention. “This court disagrees with the submissions of counsel to the defendant that the matter is spent and amounts to an academic exercise,” he said. “This case is alive and not academic; it is not spent. A suit is academic if it has no practical utilitarian value. Therefore, this court has jurisdiction to continue hearing of the suit.” Belgore said the PDP should not have appointed acting national officers since the party itself was joined in the pending suit, saying this action was an affront to the court and an effort to circumvent justice. “It amounts to recklessness of a high degree for the PDP to do or take action that has direct effect on a case that is before the court,” he said. “The emphatic point is that the PDP is a party in the suit and subjected under the court. Therefore the PDP is obliged to wait for the outcome of the suit before taking action.” He added: “The step taken by the PDP would diminish the integrity of the court and the court has a duty to impose disciplinary measures on a recalcitrant party who violates the rule of law and has no respect for the court.” But Justice Belogre declined the prayer for an interlocutory injunction nullifying the appointment of the acting NWC members and restraining national chairman Bamanga Tukur from performing any of the NWC’s functions until the determination of the substantive suit. The court adjourned till July 29 to hear a motion by counsel to the applicants Jibrin Okutepa (SAN) to amend their processes, and another application by the PDP chairman to be joined in his person. Yesterday’s ruling erected yet another hurdle in the way of the PDP as it tries to fill the vacancies created by mass resignation of party officers as a result of the INEC report that said their election breached the due process. The Gana-led convention committee had scheduled the event for August 31, but national chairman Tukur last week said the date had been shifted indefinitely. However, at the inauguration of the committee on Wednesday, Tukur backtracked and said the convention would still be held on August 31 as scheduled. It was not clear what the PDP would do in the light of the court pronouncement, as there was no immediate reaction from the party yesterday.