The National Working Committee of the ruling Peoples Democratic,
(PDP) has suspended Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, former National Chairman of
the party. Also suspended was Aliyu Abuba Gubrin, the party member who
challenged the emergence of Alhaji
Adamu Mu’azu as the chairman, in
succession to Tukur.
A statement issued, Thursday, by Victor Kwon,
PDP`s
National Legal Adviser, said, “The NWC hereby suspends Dr.
Bamanga Tukur and Aliyu Abuba Gubrin for one month and refers them to
the National Disciplinary Committee for infringing on section 58(1)(a)(
b)( h)( l) of the PDP Constitution 2012( as amended)
“The National
Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic, PDP, at its 395th meeting
held yesterday, December 3, 2014 reviewed recent national developments
as they affect the party.
Among others, the NWC deliberated on the
court case instituted against the National Chairman of the Party, Adamu
Mu’azu, by the former National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur.
“The NWC
reasoned that for instituting a claim and counter claim in suit FHC/ABJ
/821/2014; Gurin vs PDP & 3 others without first exploring and
exhausting the party’s internal mechanism of redress and for attempting
to stop the forthcoming National Convention to nominate the party’s
presidential candidate as well as regularize the position of the
National Chairman and other members of the National Working Committee is
unacceptable.
“The NWC hereby suspends Dr. Bamanga Tukur and
Aliyu Abuba Gubrin for one month and refers them to the National
Disciplinary Committee for infringing on section 58(1)(a)( b)( h)( l) of
the PDP Constitution 2012( as amended).
In a statement yesterday,
Tukur who is also the chairman of the Nigerian Railway Corporation
tried to extricate himself from Gubrin’s legal challenge against Mu’azu.
Former
national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur
on Wednesday denied insinuations that he was behind the legal moves to
remove his successor, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu to enable him return to the
office from which he was forced to resign recently.
Tukur resigned
after much pressure from chieftains of the party in the wake of the
defection of five aggrieved governors to the All Progressives Congress,
APC
Speaking through his lawyer, Mr. Adamson Adeboro, Tukur told
Judiciary Correspondents in Abuja on Wednesday, that he was joined as a
defendant alongside Mu’azu, the PDP and the Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC, in the matter by the plaintiff, Aliyu
Gubrin, and that his lawyer only filed a counter-claim on his behalf.
According
to Mr. Adamson, “My client, Bamanga Tukur was not the plaintiff in the
suit filed to oust Adamu Mu’azu. As a matter of fact, he was joined as
2nd defendant in the suit”.
Justice Evoh Chukwu had last Tuesday
dismissed the suit seeking to oust Mu’azu as the national chairman of
the PDP on the ground that the litigant does not have locus standi to
institute the action.
The plaintiff, Mr. Aliyu Gubrin, has however
filed an appeal against the judgment at the Court of Appeal but no date
has been fixed for the hearing of the appeal by the appellate court.
In
the appeal, Gubrin is urging the court to set aside the judgement of
the lower court and rule that Mu’azu’s appointment as the national
chairman of the party was illegal and also insists that Justice Chukwu
erred in his decision when he held that he lacks the locus standi to
institute the action.
He faulted the trial court’s position on the
constitutionality of Tukur’s resignation noting that the court erred
when it held that the PDP complied with the provision of the party’s
constitution without making a pronouncement on whether the 30 days
notice required under Section 47(5) of the party’s constitution is
discretionary which, according to him, led the court in reaching wrong
conclusions thereby occasioning miscarriage of Justice.
He further
stated that the court was wrong in its judgement when it held that the
appointment of Mu’azu complied with the PDP Constitution but failed to
consider the provision of section 85(3) of the Elctoral Act and Section
223(1) of the Nigerian Constitution which expressly provided for an
election of political party chairman rather than appointment as in the
case of Mu’azu.
Source:PM News

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