Court dismisses Tukur’s suit to return as PDP chairman

A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit
praying for the removal of Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu as the
National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party and
the rehinstatement of his predecessor, Alhaji Bamanga
Tukur, to the office which he resigned from over 10
months ago.
The suit marked FHC/ ABJ/CS/2014 was instituted
by a member of the PDP in Adamawa State, Aliyu
Gurin, but Tukur, who was a defendant in the suit filed a
counter-claim, seeking the same set of main prayers like
the plaintiff.
Their prayers were based on the grounds that Mu’azu’s
appointment flouted the provisions of Section 45(1) and (2)
of the party’s constitution.
Like the plaintiff, Tukur argued that his resignation from
office on January 15, 2014 failed to comply with the
provisions of the party’s constitution, which required that a
30-day pre-resignation notice must be given to the
National Executive Committee of the party.
The PDP, Mu’azu and the Independent National
Electoral Commission were joined as defendants in the
suit.
Justice Evoh Chukwu in his judgment in the suit on
Tuesday dismissed both the main suit and Tukur’s counter-
claim, describing them as constituting an abuse of court
process.
The court held that the plaintiff lacked locus standi to
institute the suit.
It also dismissed Tukur’s counter-claim which he filed as
defendant in support of the plaintiff’s case was strange and
unknown to law.
The judge dismissed the main suit and awarded N100 in
favour of each of the PDP, Mu’azu and INEC, to be
paid by the plaintiff.
The court held that Gurin lacked the locus standi to
institute as his interest in the issue he brought before the
court was not in any way greater than the interest of the
other party members.
The judge agreed with the PDP and Mu’azu that
Gurin’s suit was speculative because he failed to prove how
Mu’azu’s appointment negatively appointed his intention to
seek election into the House of Representatives, under the
PDP.
Justice Chukwu said Gurin had not been stopped from
running for the House of Representatives seat which he
claimed to be aspiring for.
He therefore held that the injuries which he claimed he
could suffer with Mu’azu’s continued stay in office were
“speculative, self-inflicted and imaginary. They are not
actual”.
Tukur had claimed in an affidavit in support of the
counter-claim that, he was made to merely step aside as
the National Chairman following pressures mounted on
President Goodluck Jonathan, who is the leader of the
party, to remove him (Tukur) in order to allow seven
governors who defected from the party to return to the
party.
He had maintained that he remained the National
Chairman of the party in the eyes of the law and urged
the court to declare the purported appointment of Mu’azu
by the National Executive Committee of the party as “null
and void being inconsistent with section 45(1) and (2) of the
party’s constitution”.