Court bars PDP from removing Damagum as national chairman

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has restrained the National Executive Committee (NEC) and the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from removing Umar Damagum as the Acting National Chairman of the party.

The presiding judge, Justice Peter Lifu, declared this while delivering judgement in a suit instituted against the PDP NEC and BoT by Senator Umar El-Gash Maina on Friday, October 11, 2024.

Justice Lifu said no other person must be recognised as PDP national chairman other than Damagum until the national convention of the party slated for December 2025.

Justice Lifu declared that in line with Articles 42, 47, and 67 of PDP, it is only at the national convention of the party that national officers can be elected.

The judge added that PDP members are bound by the party’s constitution and as such must always act in line with the provisions and obedience to the party’s law.

The latest development comes after a faction of the PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC) suspended Damagum and the party’s National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, for alleged anti-party activities.

PDP suspends national publicity secretary, legal adviser

Another faction of the NWC loyal to Damagum, on Friday, October 10, also announced the suspension of the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, and the National Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN), for alleged disloyalty to the PDP.

Ologunagba, in the statement he had earlier issued, announced the suspension of Damagum and Anyanwu, saying they had been referred to the party’s National Disciplinary Committee.

He said the decision of the NWC followed the report of anti-party activities by Damagum and Anyanwu.

Ologunagba further stated that the PDP’s NWC extensively considered the series of complaints raised against the two national officers.

He noted: “This is particularly with regard to the letter addressed by them to the Court of Appeal in Appeal No: CA/PH/307/2024 against the party’s position in the case involving the 27 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who vacated their seats upon decamping from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“The NWC condemned this anti-party activity of the Acting National Chairman and the National Secretary, which is in gross violation of the provisions of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017) and their Oath of Office.

“Consequently, the NWC, pursuant to Sections 57, 58 and 59 of the PDP Constitution, has suspended Damagum and Anyanwu as acting National Chairman and National Secretary of the Party respectively and referred them to the National Disciplinary Committee for further action.”

Ologunagba added that the two officials had been suspended from all meetings, activities, and programmes of the NWC, pending the conclusion of an investigation by the party’s National Disciplinary Committee.

The Star