A Kebbi State High Court has ordered Prince Uche Secondus to resume as the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
This comes just hours after the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party rose from an emergency meeting in Abuja to confirm Deputy National Chairman (South), Yemi Akinwonmi, as the acting national chairman of the PDP.
In a statement, on Thursday, Justice Nusirat Umar, a vacation judge of the Kebbi High Court, ordered Secondus to return as Chairman.
Secondus and the PDP are first and second respondents respectively in the suit brought before the court by Yahaya Usman, Abubakar Mohammed and Bashar Suleman, who are the three claimants and members of the party:
Justice Nusirat Umar said she was satisfied after reading the affidavit of the respondents brought before her in Birin Kebbi in case KB/AC/M. 170/2021.
The respondents requested that an interim order be granted on the purported suspension of Secondus pending the determination of the case.
“An order of this honourable court granting leave to the first respondent (Uche Secondus) to continue exercising all the constitutional powers of the office of chairman of PDP (second defendant) as enshrined in both 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended and the PDP Constitution pending the hearing and final determination of applicant’s motion on notice.”
This court order comes just three days after a Rivers State High Court had issued an interim injunction restraining Secondus from parading himself as the chairman of the PDP.
Judge Okogbule Gbasam issued the order following an ex parte application filed by four applicants: Ibeawuchi Alex, Dennis Amadi, Emmanuel Stephen, and Umezerike Onucha, as plaintiffs.
The New Diplomat had reported that the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the PDP, Akinwonmi, has taken over the leadership of the opposition’s party in the interim amid a deepening crisis that has continued to beset the PDP for months.
Meanwhile, the PDP NWC has endorsed the leadership of Akinwonmi in the meantime, insisting that it will hold a national convention to elect its national officers in October. The convention is expected to end the tenure of the present NWC, which was supposed to end on the 9th of December, 2021.
The party has now scheduled a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party for Saturday when all official decisions regarding the convention would be endorsed with the appointment of a committee to plan the national convention as well as the committee on zoning.
