The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) worsened on Friday with the sack of the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee by the Court of Appeal.
The court, which sat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, also validated Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the national chairman of the former ruling party.
The Makarfi faction, however, quickly fingered the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as the brains behind the development, accusing it of planning to foist a one-party state on the country.
However, APC reacted in a telephone interview with Saturday Tribune, saying its doors were open for the leaders of the PDP, including its governors who might want to jump out of the crisis-ridden party.
The Makarfi-led caretaker committee, in a statement by its publicity secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, stressed that the judgment was not only a disservice to the party, but to the Nigerian democracy and accused the APC of working to destabilise the country.
“The judgment has finally shown that the ruling party, the APC is out to create a one-state in the country. The party (PDP) is proceeding immediately to the Supreme Court to file an appeal against today’s appeal court judgment”, the committee said.
It however expressed the hope that the party would get judgment at the Supreme Court, declaring that the caretaker arrangement would remain in place until the Supreme Court decided otherwise.
We will accommodate them if they are law abiding —APC
However, the APC national publicity secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdulai, debunked the allegation by the PDP just as he said the ruling party had no official position on the judgment, saying the allegation that APC was behind PDP’s ordeal was merely hypothetical.
“On the specific judgment, our position is that APC has no official reaction to the development. It is their party affair that has nothing to do with APC.
“It is hypothetical to insinuate that APC wants to foist a one-party state on the country. However, we will not reject anybody who wants to come to APC for as long as such a person is ready to subject him/herself to the rules and regulations of the party and its constitution which is supreme and binding”, he said.
When asked if APC would accept into its fold the likes of Governors Nyesom Wike and Ayo Fayose of Rivers and Ekiti states, respectively, he said the ruling party was not averse to such a possibility.
“People from PDP have been joining APC since all these days. Didn’t Senators Ken Nnamani and Andy Uba leave PDP to join APC? Anybody who wants to join APC is free,” he said.
The Appeal Court, sitting in Port Harcourt, on Friday, declared as null and void the May 21, 2016 National Convention of the PDP during which the party agreed on a caretaker committee arrangement under the chairmanship of Senator Makarfi.
The latest judgment is seen as further worsening the leadership crisis rocking the former ruling party.
The beneficiary of the appellate court ruling,
Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, had appealed the earlier judgment of July 4, 2016 by Justice Mohammed Liman, which upheld the outcome of the convention.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice B.G. Sanga, submitted that PDP did not follow the provisions of Article 47(3) of its constitution in the process that led to the removal of the Sherrif-led working committee.
According to the judge, no vote of no confidence was passed as provided by the said article, and the national working committee was not put on notice.
In the judgment, which lasted about four hours, two out of the three judges held that the removal of the PDP National Working Committee and setting up of a caretaker Committee by the national convention of May 21, 2016, was illegal, ab initio.
Justice Sanga stated that Justice Liman of the lower court erred when he said the appellant committed abuse of court process by postponing the PDP convention and eventually awarded N100,000 cost in favour of the appellant.
On his part Justice A.A. Gumel, who is also the presiding Justice, said the preliminary objection filed by PDP was incompetent, as he further held that Sherrff and his executive cannot be removed until August 2017, except the party holds an election.
Gumel described the Originating Summons in the suit at the Federal high Court as overreaching, and ordered the parties to maintain status quo.
But in a dissenting judgment, Justice T.S. Orji-Abadua, held that Sheriff was only appointed in acting capacity, pending an election, adding that, going by Article 33(3) of the PDP Constitution, Sheriff does not have an overriding power over the PDP National Executive Council and therefore, had no right to unilaterally cancel the May 21 convention.
Justice Abadua, the only female Justice in the three-man panel, further averred that Sheriff erroneously and unwittingly absented himself from the May 21 PDP National Convention after being screened, which prompted the party to invoke Article 31(1) of its Constitution and set up a Caretaker committee.
She also held that Article 47 did not make it mandatory for PDP to pass a vote of no confidence before removing its officers and therefore upheld the outcome of the convention and the caretaker Committee and went further to award N100,000 cost in favour of Makarfi’s PDP.
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