The federal high court in Abuja has restrained the national executive committee (NEC) and board of trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from removing Umar Damagum as the party’s acting national chair.
In a judgment delivered via Zoom on Friday, Peter Lifu, the presiding judge, ordered that aside Damagum, no other person must be recognised as the PDP acting national chair until the party’s convention scheduled for December 2025.
Lifu held that party members are bound by Articles 42, 47 and 67 of PDP’s constitution which stipulates that national officers of the party can only be elected during the party’s national convention.
The suit marked FHC/ABJ/ CS/579/2024 was filed by Umar Maina, Yobe state PDP chair.
Maina had instituted the suit against PDP and eight others alleging that some stakeholders of the party have been holding meetings to forcefully remove Damagum from office.
He said Phillip Salawu, a former deputy governor of Kogi state was being pushed forward as a replacement for Damagun by the stakeholders.
He said despite sending two separate written petitions to Samuel Anyanwu, national secretary of the party, no action was taken regarding the issue.
The plaintiff, through Joshua Musa, his counsel, prayed the court to invoke article 45, 47 and 67 of PDP constitution to stop the move to replace Damagum.
The plaintiff specifically asked the court to declare that the national chairmanship of PDP is rotated between the north and south regions and not through any other procedure alien to the party’s constitution.
In his judgment, Lifu agreed with the plaintiff that Damagum can only be replaced at the national convention of PDP or through an order of a court.
Lifu also held that any attempt to truncate the four-year tenure of the northern region without the national convention of the party would amount to an affront to the constitution of the PDP.
