4th November, 2014
Nnamdi Felix/Abuja
Ahead of the forthcoming general elections, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has approached a federal court in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, asking the court to nullify the appointment of Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, the party’s national chairman, as illegal.
The chieftain, Mr. Emmanuel Onu, wants the court to determine whether the process and procedure that produced Mu’azu as the party’s national chairman, was in compliance with Sections 47(5) and (6) of the 2012 constitution of the PDP.
Cited as defendants in the suit are the Peoples Democratic Party, its national chairman, Adamu Mu’azu and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Mu’azu was appointed by the party’s national executive committee to succeed Alhaji Bamanga Turkur, who resigned as the National Chairman of the party on 15 January, 2014 but Onu is seeking a declaration by the court that the purported resignation letter of Bamanga Tukur presented by President Goodluck Jonathan to the national executive committee of the party was in clear violation of Sections 47(5) and (6) of the 2012 Constitution of the PDP.
He wants the court to declare that the appointment of Mu’azu as the chairman of PDP is invalid as it was not in compliance with laid down procedure of Sections 45(1) and (2) of the 2012 Constitution of the PDP and to nullify that appointment for flouting section 85(1) and (3) of the 2010 Electoral Act of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Section 223(1) of the 1999 Constitution.
He also wants the court to order the immediate re-instatement of Bamanga Tukur as the national chairman of the PDP or in the alternative order the deputy national chairman to pilot the affairs of PDP until the due process of electing a valid national chairman is complied with.
He further urged the court to stop Mu’azu from parading himself as the national chairman of the PDP and to also order INEC to stop further correspondence with Mu’azu.
In the affidavit attached to the motion on notice, Onu averred that the appointment of Mu’azu as the national chairman was premature and unconstitutional.