Mu’azu is acting PDP Chairman, says INEC The Independent National Electoral Commission has said that Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu is in office in an acting capacity and not as the substantive National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. The commission, in a letter signed by its secretary, Musa Adamu, however, said the appointment of Mu’azu as the acting national chairman of the PDP did not violate the party’s constitution. The letter was in response to an inquiry over the status of Mu’azu as the chairman of the party. Two aggrieved members of the PDP, Emmanuel Onu and Ezionye Ndubuisi, had in separate law suits filed on October 13, 2014 and September 2014, at the Federal High Court in Abuja, sought the removal of Mu’azu as chairman of the PDP. In their suit which had INEC and the PDP as interested parties, the plaintiffs faulted the process that produced Mu’azu as chairman of the party, saying it was not known to the party’s constitution. Mu’azu emerged chairman of the PDP in February this year, through the ratification of the National Executive Committee of the party, following the forced resignation of Dr. Bamanga Tukur. But the letter from INEC, dated October 21, 2014, read, “Pursuant to the resignation of the former national chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu was appointed the acting National Chairman of PDP in accordance with section 47(6) of the PDP Constitution 2012 as amended, which provides “Where a vacancy occurs in any of the offices of the party, the executive committee at the appropriate level shall appoint another person from the area or zone where the officer originated from pending the conduct of the election to fill the vacancy. “In view of the foregoing, the appointment of Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu as the acting National Chairman of the PDP is valid as it complies with the party’s constitution and the commission (INEC) recognises him as such pending the conduct of election to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of the former national chairman.” Meanwhile, respite came the way of Mu’azu on Thursday as two legal suits seeking his resignation from office were withdrawn by the plaintiffs. Their lawyer, Elochukwu Nweke, disclosed this while speaking with journalists at the party’s secretariat. Nweke said, “We wish to officially announce and state that we have withdrawn the above law suit seeking to remove the PDP national chairman from office.” Nweke stated that the decision of his clients to withdraw the suit was in “the best overriding interest of the party and in view of fresh evidence, letter and documentation from INEC confirming the validity of the appointment of Mu’azu as acting PDP national chairman and ongoing constitutional process by the PDP to ratify all the anomalies we have raised in our suit.” He said the aggrieved members have filed a different notice of discontinuance of the suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja and that the court had officially served all parties, thereby bringing an end to the legal challenge over the appointment of Mu’azu. He however said he was not aware of any settlements to his clients by the national chairman of the PDP, saying, “we are instructed by plaintiffs to withdraw the matter and that is what we have done.” He said that the legal action taken by his clients had prompted the party to commence a process that would ratify the appointment of Mu’azu as the chairman of the party. He said, “As we pointed out, there is an ongoing process to elect national executive members. Take a decision to do so give them benefit of the doubt. If the plaintiff had not done that, I doubt they will be going ahead to do the right thing.” He added that the matter was leaked to the media without their approval, stressing “it didn’t emanate from us.”
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 02:39:42 +0000
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