Court gives fresh order in purported move to unseat Damagun as PDP acting chair
In March 2023, Damagum assumed the role of interim chairman of the PDP after Iyorchia Ayu was suspended.
A federal high court in Abuja has issued a temporary order preventing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from appointing a new acting chairman, Umar Damagum, from being replaced.
The lawsuit, which has drawn the attention of the legal community, involves the PDP, its national working committee (NWC), national executive committee (NEC), board of trustees (BoT), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the respondents.
Court ruling on Damagum’s attempted removal
Justice Peter Lifu, presiding over the case, issued the ruling on May 3, temporarily prohibiting the respondents from appointing a replacement for Damagum until a further decision is made on the matter.
As quoted by TheCable, the ruling reads, “The defendants/respondents are hereby restrained in the interim from appointing, selecting, or nominating any person to replace Amb. Umar Illiya Damagum as national chairman or acting national chairman of the 1st defendant/respondent pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filed, which is herein fixed against May 14, 2024,” the judge ruled.
“The defendants/respondents, by themselves, agents, privies, or by any proxy, are hereby in the interim restrained from, according to recognition, any person other than Amb. Umar Illiya Damagum as acting national chairman of the 1st defendants/respondents or giving effect to or acting upon any document purporting to be signed by the national chairman or acting national chairman of the 1st defendant without the name and signature of Amb. Umar Illiya Damagum, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filed in court in the instant suit.
“The applicants are herein ordered to enter into a fresh undertaking to pay damages to the respondents (to be assessed by the court) if, at the end of the day, it is discovered that this order ought not to have been granted or that the honourable court was misled into granting the same.”
The court postponed the case to May 14 to address the motion formally submitted for consideration.
Recently, the PDP National Caucus temporarily extended Ambassador Umar Damagum’s term as the party’s acting national chairman.
However, this extension remains contingent on the outcome of the imminent National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.