By Musa Baba Adamu
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had restrained the national body of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from dissolving the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the party in Rivers State over alleged anti-party activities.
Delivering judgement, Justice Inyang Ekwo, said he found that the case of the Plaintiff, Desmond Akawo, succeeded on merit.
Akawo, Rivers’ PDP chairman, had sued the party and Dr Iyorchia Ayu , the immediate-past natiyonal Chairman of the party alongside members of the National Working Committee (NWC)) and National Executive Committee (NEC) as 1st and 2nd defendants, respectively.
The plaintiff also joined the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 3rd defendant in the amended originating summons marked FHC/ABJ/CS/112/2023 and filed on March 9 by his counsel, Joshua Musa, SAN.
Akawo sought the court’s determination on whether, going by the provisions of Section 223 of the 1999 Constitution and Article 47(1) of the Constitution of the PDP (as amended In 2017), the Rivers SEC was not entitled to serve its term.
He said he and other members of Rivers PDP SEC, LGA executive committees, and ward executive committees were elected and sworn in pursuant to the state’s congress held on March 21, 2020, and therefore entitled to complete their four-year term, which expires on or about May 22, 2024.
Akawo, in the affidavit to which he personally deposed, averred that PDP and its national chairman, on January 4, prior to the general elections, threatened to unilaterally dissolve the Rivers PDP SEC and replace it with an interim caretaker committee.
HeHe said prior to the threat, neither he nor any member of the state committee had ever been queried.
He, therefore, sought an order of injunction restraining the party and the national chairman from dissolving, suspending, or truncating the tenure of the Rivers’ SEC, LGA executive committees, and the ward executive committees until May 22, 2024, when their four-year term would expire, among other reliefs.
Justice Ekwo held that the PDP and its national chairman did not deny Akawo’s averments.
“Essentially, the 1st and 2nd defendants have admitted the case of the plaintiff on this issue. The law is that facts admitted need no further proof,” he said.
The judge, who granted all Akawo’s reliefs, declared that the party and its national chairman cannot unilaterally and without reasonable cause dissolve the state executives who were democratically elected for a four-year period.
He also gave an order of injunction, restraining them from appointing any person or group of persons as interim caretaker committee in the state until May 22, 2024.
Justice Ekwo further issued an injunction order restraining INEC from giving recognition to or accepting any caretaker committee of the PDP in the state except those democratically elected and represented by Akawo in the suit.
