Bamanga Tukur
Baraje
The Abubakar Baraje-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its officers have been stopped from posing as the national representatives of the party.
The Federal High Court, Abuja which stopped the members of the faction, also declared the Bamanga Tukur faction of the party as the one authentic one recognised by law. Presiding judge of the court, Justice Elvis Chukwu , therefore ordered the Baraje faction to stop meddling in the affairs of the party.
The Tukur faction had approached the court for an order restraining the Baraje group from parading itself as the ruling party.
The aggrieved faction under Baraje , however, argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter as it was based on the internal affairs of the party. It also said Tukur and other plaintiffs did not follow the due process in filing the suit.
In his ruling, however, Justice Chukwu held that the plaintiffs had presented before the court documentary evidence showing that their claims and reliefs sought should be granted.
The court also held that the facts were not contentious and that there were sufficient materials placed before the court, which did not necessitate the plaintiffs to come by a writ of summon.
The judge held that all the evidence brought by the plaintiffs was unequivocal and authenticated their case.
“The suit before the court is properly constituted; I cannot deny the plaintiffs of their rights because of alleged non compliance. It is obvious that the plaintiffs have proved that they are entitled to all the reliefs sought.
“By the provisions of Sections 222 and 223 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, Section 80, Electoral Act, 2011, Section 49 of the PDP Constitution, 2012, 1st to 5thdefendants are not entitled to nullify the results of the election of the PDP special convention which produced the plaintiffs.
“The 2nd to 5th defendants are not entitled to be officers of the party having not participated in the election which took place during the special convention of the party where the plaintiffs emerged,” Justice Chukwu stated.
Cautioning the Baraje faction not to interfere with the duties of the Tukur-led executive committee,
the judge also stopped the faction from opening and or operating parallel national, state, Local Government and ward secretariats of the PDP.
The counsel to the Baraje faction, Ahmed RajI, SAN and Robert Clarke, SAN, had brought a preliminary objection, challenging the competence of the court to entertain the suit.
They contended that the issues before the court were internal affairs of the party thus the court did not have jurisdiction to entertain the case.
They also argued that non-juristic persons were made parties and to that effect, the suit before the court was improper and incompetent.
While praying the court to strike out the entire suit brought by the plaintiffs, Raji argued that the process filed by the plaintiffs was irregular and had the tendency of over burdening the court.
He averred that the facts presented by the plaintiffs did not support any of the reliefs sought by them and contended further that the proper delegates to the party’s convention were the ones who had their election at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja , noting that the authentic delegates were not allowed access to the Eagle Square and therefore anyone who emerged from the Eagle square convention could not have been duly elected. He persuaded the court not to dabble into the matter since it was a domestic one.
In his submission, Clarke concurred with Raji’s submissions, adding however that the plaintiffs had departed from the issues they formulated and that going by a Supreme Court judgement in a number of cases, such suit should be dismissed.
Responding, counsel to Tukur’s faction, Tochukwu Onwugbuifo, SAN, argued that the plaintiffs were in court seeking the interpretation of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), the Electoral Act and the PDP constitution as regards certain issues raised.
He submitted that Section 251 of the Constitution had provided that the Federal High Court had the jurisdiction to hear any matter on any issue where the Federal Government and its agencies were parties.
He added that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as a party to the suit, had vested jurisdiction on the court to entertain the matter.
Arguing his originating summons, Onwugbuifo contended that no member of the Baraje faction was duly elected at the mini convention of the party held at the Eagle Square, Abuja.
He held that going by the constitution of the PDP, the legal and authentic convention with the accredited delegates was held at the Eagle Square where the national officers of the party were elected.
He also stressed that the legal convention took place at the Eagle Square and not at the Yar’Adua Centre.
Reacting to the legal defeat, the Baraje-faction said in a statement on Sunday that though it accepted the verdict, it has carefully studied Friday’s ruling by the Federal High Court, Abuja and advised its lawyers to go on appeal.
The statement read in part: “As a group that has a lot of respect for the judiciary, we have accepted the ruling in good faith and wish to abide by it. Even so, we have directed our legal team to appeal the judgement as a matter of urgency as we remain convinced that we have a good case and are thus determined to ensure that Tukur and his cohorts are not allowed to hold sway as the leaders of our great party.”
It added (sic): “Apart from deciding on the Federal High Court ruling and the challenges facing us a group the G7/Stakeholders/NWC Meeting slated for this week is expected to deliberate on how the new Five Governors of PDP that have indicated interest to join the Baraje leadership will be received in the fold. Let us reiterate that contrary to some insinuations in some quarters reflected in a section of the media of division and disunity amongst our Governors and National Assembly members because of our current travails but the fact remains that instead of division, our current travails have strengthen us the more and act as a unifying factor that have shown us that it is matter of time that the undemocratic elements that have seized our party will be dislodged.”
“Meanwhile, we feel nothing but pity for Alhaji Tukur and his NWC, who are already gloating over their “victory” over us and even had the temerity to describe us and our Governors as criminals, warning that the heavens would fall if we should meet under any platform! By being so uncouth in addressing Governors duly elected by Nigerians, Tukur and his disciples have one more vindicated our struggle to flush out these unholy undemocratic elements from our party. We are confident that this is one mission which we shall successfully accomplish by the grace of God not minding the use of State Security agencies to harass and intimidate our people. We once more thank our numerous members and supporters and wish to reassure them that there is no cause for worry. They should remain steadfast and continue in prayer for Almighty God to vindicate us and grant us victory in the end.”
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