News: Court sacks Secondus as PDP chairman - Nigeria

 

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja on Tuesday ordered the Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Uche Secondus, to leave the office and revert to his original position as the party’s Deputy National Chairman.

Justice Yusuf Baba, who made the order in its judgment in the suit filed by a former Special Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, held that Secondus was occupying the position of the Acting National Chairman of the PDP in gross violation of the party’s constitution..

The judge held that the position of the Acting National Chairman of the party should have been held by its eligible member from the North-East geopolitical zone in line with the zoning arrangement of the party recognised by its constitution.

He ordered Secondus to vacate the office within 14 days and directed that any qualified member of the party from the North-East should assume the position of the Acting National Chairman of the party.

At the hearing of the case on November 30, Gulak had through his lawyer, Mr. Jibrin Okutepa, anchored his prayers on the grounds that by the provision of the PDP constitution and its zoning principle, he was supposed to step in as the chairman of the party following the resignation of Adamu Mu’azu, who hailed from the North-East.

Parties to the suit had argued the plaintiff’s substantive suit and the preliminary objection filed by the defendants , the PDP and Secondus.

The judge on Tuesday dismissed the preliminary objection as he upheld Gulak’s lawyer’s argument.

Gulak had said in its suit that as a registered member of the party from Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State, North-East geopolitical zone, he was qualified for the position.

He stated that Secondus who was elected the Deputy National Chairman of the party from Rivers State and who upon the voluntary resignation of the former National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, on May 29, 2015, assumed the position of acting national chairman of the party, had continued to run the affairs of the party in gross violation of its constitution.

He averred that by Article 35 of the PDP constitution, it was the duty of Secondus to ensure that the provisions of the party’s constitution “is respected by summoning and presiding over the meeting of the National Executive Committee which then shall appoint a person from the zone where the former national chairman hails from to become the substantive national chairman.”

Gulak contended that by the zoning arrangement of the party, since Mu’azu did not complete his tenure, the next national chairman ought to have come from the North-East.

Source: Punch Written by: Ade Adesomoju, Abuja

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