…Court dismisses suit
Legal steps taken by the surrogates of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to reclaim his post collapsed on Tuesday as the federal high court dismissed the suit.
The suit instituted by Mr. Aliyu Gubrin had challenged Tukur’s resignation and the appointment of the incumbent, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu as the national chairman of the party when there was no vacancy.
He had asked the court to restrain Mu’azu from acting as the chairman of the party and to halt the planned national convention of the party scheduled for 10th and 11th December, 2014 where the party is expected to adopt President Goodluck Jonathan as its sole candidate for next year’s Presidential election.
Pronouncing the judgement, presiding judge, Justice Evoh Stephen Chukwu, held that Gubrin had no locus standi to institute the action, noting that he had not suffered any specific injury over and above all other members of the party.
The court maintained that Gubrin’s claims that the appointment of Muazu as the national chairman of the party was in breach of section 47(5) of the party’s constitution and had affected the realisation of his political aspirations, was speculative, self inflicted and imaginary as nobody in the party had stopped him in his bid to contest the House of Representatives election on the party’s platform.
The court also held that Gubrin’s postulations on the protection of the party’s constitution is of no moment as the National Working Committee of the party had complied with section 47(6) of the party’s constitution by appointing Mu’azu from the same geopolitical zone as Tukur following the latter’s resignation which, according to the court, makes the complaints of no issue.
The national leadership of the party had protested against the suit and had asked the court to dismiss the suit which is said to be about internal affairs of the party which is not justiceable.
Mu’azu had also protested that Gubrin failed to exhaust all internal mechanisms within the party before approaching the court contrary to the provisions of section 61 of the party’s constitution.
Following the party’s notice of preliminary injunction challenging Mr. Gubrin’s locus standi, Tukur chose to come out in the open and trade tackles with his successor. He personally applied to the court to be joined in the suit as a co -defendant and had filed counter claims in a calculated move to benefit from the suit even if the court holds that Aliyu Ayuba Jibrin does not have locus standi to institute the action.
The court came down hard on Tukur for his counter claims against the PDP, Mu’azu and the Independent National Election Commission; INEC, who are co defendants alongside Tukur in the suit.
The judge observed that Tukur’s conduct in filing a counter claims against the other defendants was strange and unknown to the law practice as he is seeking same reliefs as the plaintiff even though he is a defendant.
Justice Chukwu therefore dismissed the suit in its entirety and awarded N100,000 cost each to PDP, Mu’azu and INEC to be paid by the plaintiff Gubrin.
