About 10 months after he was forced out of office, the immediate past National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bamanga Tukur, has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to reinstate him to office.
He maintained that he remained the National Chairman of the party “in the eyes of the law,” claiming that his purported resignation from office on January 15, 2014 was null and void as it flouted provisions of section 47(5) of the party’s constitution.
He also asked the court to order the PDP, the incumbent National Chairman of the party, Adamu Mu’azu, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, “to recognise and permit him to continue to preside over the affairs of the party till 2016.”
He maintained that having been elected for a four-year term in 2012 he ought to legally remain in office till 2016 but was only forced to “step aside” from office on January 15, 2014.
These are contained in a counter-claim which he filed on Wednesday in a suit instituted by another member of the PDP, Aliyu Gurin, who is challenging the appointment of Mu’azu as the National Chairman of the party.
Tukur also argued that the appointment of Mu’azu as the National Chairman of the party was in breach of the provisions of section 47(6) of the PDP constitution, adding that position could only be filled through an election at the party’s convention.
Though, Tukur is the second defendant in the suit, his counsel, Adamson Adeboro, explained to journalists in Abuja after filing the counter-claim on Wednesday that the suit touched on his client’s rights and had only refused to personally file a suit to reclaim his former position since January in order to allow peace to reign in the party.
Tukur claimed in an affidavit in support of the counter-claim that he was made to merely step aside as the 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 to the party.
He 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 party as “null and void being inconsistent with section 45(1) and (2) of the party’s constitution.”
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