PDP: Court dashes Tukur’s hope for return

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Tuesday
dismissed a request by a former National Chairman of the
Peoples Democratic Party, Bamangar Tukur, to be
reinstated after 10 months of resignation.
The court’s rejection of the request was consequent upon
the dismissal of the suit in which a PDP member in
Adamawa State, Aliyu Gurin, asked for the removal
from office of the current National Chairman of the ruling
PDP, Adamu Mu’azu.
The suit marked FHC/ ABJ/CS/2014 was instituted
by Gurin, but Tukur, who was a defendant in the suit,
filed a counter-claim, seeking the same set of main prayers
as 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 PDP 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 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 the locus standi to
institute the suit and that Tukur’s counter-claim 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 the suit because his interest in the issue 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 affected his intention to
seek election into the House of Representatives on the
platform of the PDP.
Tukur had claimed in an affidavit in support of his
counter-claim that he was made to merely step aside as
the PDP 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.
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 PDP as “null and
void being inconsistent with section 45(1) and (2) of the
party’s constitution.”