The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday challenged endeavors by the police and the Department of State Service (DSS) to leave its national tradition, as representatives moved to the state secretariat of the gathering in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to hold the tradition.
The police had fixed off the Sharks Stadium venue of the tradition and banned representatives from accessing the venue.
However, at the state secretariat of the gathering at Aba Road, the Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the PDP, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, pronounced the tradition open.
The tradition affirmed the expansion of the residency of the overseer advisory group drove by Makarfi by 12 months furthermore expanded its enrollment from seven to 13 through a movement moved by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and favored by a previous Minister of Women Affairs, Hajia Zainab Maina.
The Chairman of the National Convention Planning Committee and Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, pushed for the expansion of the overseer board of trustees, which was consistently affirmed.
The tradition had before embraced a movement moved by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Leo Ogor, and favored by the Chairman of the Federal Capital Territory section of the PDP, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman, to revise the plan of the tradition and venture down the issue of race.
Markarfi, tending to the tradition after the augmentation of his board of trustees' residency, guaranteed the agents that his advisory group would successfully position the gathering for 2019 and would sort out another tradition inside the period.
Markarfi had before initiated the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the gathering.
Playing out the initiation at the Government House, Port Harcourt, Makarfi said the NEC incorporated the PDP governors, National Assembly Caucus, Board of Trustees (BoT), National Caucus, the 36 state PDP administrators and national officers of the gathering.
He said without the chose national officers, the National Caretaker Committee individuals would be a piece of NEC, including that his board of trustees individuals would stop to be NEC individuals once national officers are chosen.
At the meeting were the PDP governors, National Assembly Caucus, individuals from the PDP BoT, National Caucus, 36 state PDP directors and National Caretaker Committee individuals from the gathering.
Additionally clarifying why it didn't lead decisions into its national workplaces in spite of its prior request that the tradition would hold, the Publicity Secretary of the guardian advisory group, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye, said the gathering did not have any desire to make a climate of tumult, so it picked the expansion of the residency of the overseer board of trustees set up of decisions.
He said a few pioneers of the gathering had mooted moving to another venue to direct the decisions, however it was determined that security agents could at present come to disturb the activity.
Adeyeye said the choice to develop the residency of the overseer board of trustees likewise tended to the lacuna that could have emerged if the tradition had not held.
"The gathering initiated the new NEC today and it met and chose to proceed with our national tradition. The tradition migrated to the secretariat of the gathering in Rivers State.
"The spot was sufficiently enormous to oblige every one of the agents of the gathering and different pioneers of the gathering. The tradition took a few choices that the residency of the overseer board of trustees be reached out by 12 months and be extended from seven to 13. Its individuals are not to challenge for any elective office of the gathering," he said.
He said the security agents overlooked an interlocutory request from a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt to give security to the tradition, regarding the Abuja High court request.
Adeyeye was of the perspective that the security agents ought to likewise have consented to another High Court judgment in Abuja that held that Senator Ali Modu Sheriff was not the executive of the gathering.
He, in any case, communicated certainty that the gathering would turn out more grounded from the emergency.
"Say thanks to God we had our tradition and inside the following 12 months everything will be settled. The Federal High Court in Port Harcourt made extremely touchy claims that the tradition ought to proceed yet they were overlooked by security organizations. We have a judgment of court conveyed by Justice Mohammad Liman that offered lawfulness to our tradition," he said.
Police Deny Sealing off Stadium
As ahead of schedule as 6 a.m. wednesday, the police and agents of the DSS had moved vans, defensively covered staff bearers and different vehicles to blockade all entrance to the Sharks Stadium in Port Harcourt.
At its passage, stern-looking equipped security staff banned representatives, columnists and even security faculty from entering the stadium.
Indeed, even policemen who had on Tuesday evening helped individuals from the gathering to organize the venue turned unfriendly and undermined to manage their "companions" of the day preceding.
Inquisitively, the police denied close the Sharks Stadium. Tending to writers notwithstanding when the stadium was closed to the general population, the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Francis Odesanya, said the police did not close the stadium.
Odesanya said the police was just acting in consistence with a court request to give security to the wellbeing of lives and property.
At the point when solicited which from the court orders he was conforming to, he basically said: "We are just complying with a court request. It is not my obligation to decipher court orders. You individuals are columnists and you got the court arranges as well. You are in a position to translate the requests."
He likewise declined to uncover when the police got the request to close the venue of the tradition, as the same police had said on Tuesday night that it was yet to get the request.
He said: "Our activities are in accordance with the court request. It is not pertinent when we got to the venue. The police have been there; we are dependably all around. We are continually giving security all over the place. That is our essential task, to ensure that all over the place inside the state is secure.
"The police did not close anyplace. We are simply giving security and guaranteeing that there is peace, security and request."
He additionally said the journalists were not in any position to represent and/or in the interest of the PDP delegates who couldn't pick up section into the venue of the tradition.
"Writers are not agents and you can't represent delegates. You are columnists and you are not certify," he said.
Fayose Under 'House Arrest'
In another development, Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, wednesday cried out that he was placed under “house arrest” by the police while in Port Harcourt.
The governor, who was not sighted at any venue in Port Harcourt, lamented that he was not at the convention because he was placed under “house arrest” at the old Presidential Lodge, Rivers State Government House where he lodged.
Fayose, who spoke through his media aide, Mr. Lere Olayinka, said he was prevented from moving out, as the gate to the old Presidential Lodge was blocked by an armoured personnel carrier (APC).
He said all entreaties to allow Fayose to step out to attend the convention were rebuffed by the security personnel at the lodge.
But reacting to the allegations, the state Commissioner of Police Odesanya said it was unfair to make such allegations against the police.
He stated that there were other dignitaries lodged at the same venue and wondered how it was possible for others to have left the lodge while Fayose could not.
“That cannot be true. It is not to my knowledge. How did the other excellencies (governors) get out of the lodge?” he queried.
Fayose, in another statement by yet another aide, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, also said that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) wanted PDP dead because the former does not want a virile opposition to challenge its obnoxious policies and inability to tackle the problems confronting the country.
Speaking in Port Harcourt, Fayose said such a development would not be in the best interest of the country and Nigerians at large.
He said a virile opposition was a vital ingredient for democracy and necessary to make democracy thrive.
Fayose said the cordoning off of the Sharks Stadium by the police on the orders of the Inspector General of Police (IG) had the input of the APC-led federal government, observing that the police only acted out the script written by the APC-led government.
“I witnessed what the police did early today in Port Harcourt, it is most unfortunate. It has shown that we are indeed in perilous times in the country.
“The APC is desperate to kill the opposition and silence others because they are afraid that their inability to properly govern the country and tackle the challenges facing us as a nation would be exposed by a virile PDP.
“The Buhari government is dictatorial. There is tension everywhere. All sectors are down and they are focusing on killing the opposition. What business has APC with PDP internal matters?
“If they said they wanted to act on court orders, why didn’t they act on more than four orders that were in favour of the Markafi group? They don’t have answers to the terrible situation in the country but they know that an organised PDP will be emboldened to challenge them,” he said.
The governor wondered what would have happened if the PDP acted like the APC and refused to hand over to the APC last year.
Fayose said it was unfortunate that Senator Sheriff had turned himself to an instrument in the hands of the APC to destabilise the PDP.
He appealed to PDP members from across the country who came to the convention not to feel discouraged, saying the truth would prevail in the long run.
Abuja Court Affirms Sheriff’s Ouster
However, as the PDP licked its wounds over the absence of elections at its convention, some relief might have come its way, when Justice Nwamaka Ogbonna of a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in no uncertain terms told Senator Sherrif that he is illegally parading himself as the chairman of the PDP.
The court told Sheriff to stop parading himself as chairman and to stop acting on behalf of the party as chairman.
The suit seeking declaration on Sheriff’s status was instituted by a contestant to the position of the youth leader at yesterday’ convention, Danladi Ayuba, while the sole defendant was Sheriff.
When the case was mentioned, no counsel appeared for Sheriff. The plaintiff however presented to court the proof of service of the court process on Sheriff.
In her judgment, Justice Ogbonna said based on the judgment of Justice Valentine Ashi of the same court on June 26, 2016, which upheld Sheriff’s ouster and had not been appealed against at the Court of Appeal, all actions taken since June 26th were a nullity.
“There is no evidence that the judgment of Ashi J. has been appealed against. Therefore the judgment, which is a declarative one, must be obeyed.
“Anything done contrary to the judgment of Ashi J. delivered on June 26th is null and void and of no effect. The judgment of Ashi J. having not been appealed against subsists and is binding,” the judge held.
In the suit, which was heard two days ago, the plaintiff asked the court to decide among others whether having regard to the binding and subsisting judgment of Justice Valentine Ashi delivered on June 26 which nullified the purported amendment of the provisions of Article 47(6) of the constitution of the PDP by which the defendant was claiming entitlement to the post of the national chairman of the PDP, the defendant could legally continue to parade himself as the national chairman, act or do anything in the name or on behalf of the PDP.
The plaintiff also asked the court to declare that the judgment of Justice Valentine Ashi was binding, valid and subsisting.
Sheriff Declares Convention Illegal
However, a defiant Sheriff wednesday described the convention of the PDP as illegal, null and void, adding that the meeting breached Section 31 of the PDP constitution.
In a statement issued by Sheriff’s media aide, Mr. Inua Buala, the former Borno governor also described as illegal the extension of the tenure of the Makarfi-led caretaker committee.
The section provides that it is only the national chairman who can convene a NEC, after giving two weeks notice to INEC.
“Even in an emergency situation, one week notice must be given to the national chairman, who has the sole responsibility to convene the NEC.
“It is sad that in the face of obvious disregard for court orders, which halted the convention, some individuals are bent on perpetrating impunity by taking steps to install another contraption on the PDP,” he said.
Sheriff observed that the rule of law and constitutionality must prevail in all circumstances, as such “whatever decisions arrived at, are not binding and cannot stand in law”.
APC Denies Involvement in Legal Tussle
Meanwhile, Mr. Olisaemeka Akamukale, a member of the APC BoT said yesterday that the ruling party was not behind the legal tussle in the PDP.
Akamukale, while fielding questions from reporters at the APC national secretariat in Abuja said that the ruling party had no reason to be behind the conflicting court orders and welcomed a vibrant opposition.
He said: “Ali Modu Sheriff was with us in ANPP until we formed APC. He left to PDP and was celebrated. We have no reason to be behind it.
“The problem with PDP is that they want to put money where they did not harvest. They should look for their founding fathers. It is better we have a strong opposition. We don’t need crisis in the PDP to win landslide again in 2019.
“We don’t need Ali Modu Sheriff; he contested in Borno and lost even among the grassroots. We don’t need him, that umbrella is torn.
“They should go back and form a new party, not using a wasted pipeline. It’s a lesson for APC to learn.
“They became like emperors – undemocratic principles, the rule of law was trampled upon. See the Port Harcourt saga, they just disgraced themselves.
“Nigerians need a viable opposition. For us as it stands now, APC is the only party. It is not good for Nigeria; bury the umbrella and present a formidable opposition.”
The BoT member held the view that Sheriff was not a man “to be used and dumped”.
“When they brought him, they were happy, they used his money, and now they have used him and want to dump him. The Sheriff I know will not succumb.”
He urged all those who worked to make APC a reality, but are impatient with President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointments into boards to be patient.
“I agree that people are impatient with the president and are still waiting out there to be compensated. I’m sure it would soon be addressed, but I urge that be patient.
“I do not think that it is because we do not have a BoT that we have problems. The only thing I will agree is that the BoT is the only board inaugurated to settle conflicts within the party.
“For instance, this padding issue has nothing to do with the APC so as far as I am concerned, it should be investigated. The party will not shield someone that commits a crime,” he said.
source: Thisday
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