• As court sacks Makarfi, Sheriff
By Chris Anucha, Port Harcourt, Taiwo Amodu, Abuja, and Lukman Olabiyi
Following conflicting court judgments on the authentic leadership of the PDP, the Board of Trustees (BoT), yesterday night, gave indication that it would take over the party’s administration.
Former minister of Transport and BoT secretary, Chief Ojo Madueke said the move, which he claimed was in consonance with PDP’s constitution, was to avoid a vacuum in its operations. He admitted that the BoT was bound by the decision of the highest organ of the party, the national convention (which put the senator Ahmed Makarfi caretaker committee in place), amid conflicting court orders, for the BoT to step in.
He said senator Ali Modu Sheriff, whose National Working Committee (NWC) was dissolved last Saturday, in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, was wrong to have assumed he was the proper person to conduct the convention. “It is not the national chairman who moderates a convention but the convention chairman. The BoT, as the conscience of the party, is bound by the decision of the highest organ of the party, especially when there was no court order aborting the convention.
“Whatever may be the controversies surrounding the appointment of “catetaker committee (which in our opinion is uncalled for, as section 33(5) is quite clear on the powers of the national committee to “appoint such committees, as it may deem necessary, desirable or expedient,) the role of BoT, as custodian of the assets of the party, has not been challenged by anyone.”
Madueke further gave indication that the BoT will initiate moves to conduct a fresh convention.
Asked if the steps to be taken enjoys the blessings of the party’s governors, Madueke said his organ of the party was yet to consult with the governors.
Earlier, two conflicting rulings of the Federal High Court yesterday worsened the woes of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
While Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Lagos division of the court invalidated the Makarfi caretaker committee and directed Sheriff to continue in office as national chairman, his Port Harcourt counterpart, Justice A. M. Liman restrained both Sheriff and Prof. Adewale Oladipo from holding themselves out as national officers of PDP. Sheriff and Oladipo were sacked at the party’s national convention last Saturday.
Justice Buba directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Solomon Arase, to enforce his order and also arrest whoever presented himself as member of the caretaker committee of PDP.
Justice Buba had earlier granted an order restraining the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from conducting any election into the offices of the national chairman, national secretary and national auditor pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit. The court also restrained INEC from monitoring or recognising elections into the offices occupied by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd plaintiffs (Sheriff, Oladipo and Adeyanju) respectively.
Both the Lagos and Port Harcourt divisions of the Federal High Court are courts of coordinate jurisdiction, which orders cannot bind each other.
Meanwhile, different reactions have trailed the conflicting judgements of the Federal High Court.
Former minister of Transport and BoT member, Chief Ebenezer Babatope has blamed the development on a chieftain of the party in the South West, Senator Buruji Kashamu. He accused Kashamu of stoking crisis in the party.
Kashamu, Babatope insisted, was instrumental to Justice Buba’s order stopping the South-West zonal congress of the party and directing the party not to conduct elections into the offices of national chairman, national secretary and national auditor at the convention held at the weekend.
He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to save the nation’s judiciary from ridicule and embarrassment.
On his part, Oladipo, however, told Daily Sun that Justice Buba’s restraining order would save the main opposition party from what he called avoidable crisis. He dismissed the convention held in Port Harcourt as a nullity and an affront to the judiciary.
“A subsisting order has been there for three weeks in a case instituted over three months ago. So, how can another court give another order? How can any group procure a judgement in Port Harcourt to give legitimacy to their illegal convention?…”
They refused to honour two court orders and now rushed to another court. How can that stand?” he queried.
Contacted, former national legal adviser of the party, Mr. Victor Kwom said: “The leadership of the party will find a way to resolve it. I am no longer the national legal adviser.”
In a related development, a chieftain of PDP in Anambra State, Mr. Chuks Okoye has said the emergence of the Markafi-led caretaker committee saved the party from disintegration.
The state secretary of the Chris Uba-led faction of PDP in the state said many interest groups would have pulled out of the party if the committee were not constituted.
He described members of the caretaker committee as people of integrity, assuring that they would place the interest of the party above selfish considerations.