The former minister of special duties, Tanimu Turaki (SAN), camp has declared that the Peoples Democratic Party is currently without a defined leadership as a result of the Supreme Court of Nigeria’s ruling but expressed confidence that the party’s constitutional organs will quickly intervene to rescue the situation and reconstitute its leadership.
Turaki’s National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, said in a statement on Thursday that the split decision supported the Court of Appeal’s suspension of Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN), Senator Samuel Anyanwu, and others.
The Supreme Court on Thursday, in two 3-2 judgments, declared the PDP national convention held in Ibadan on November 15 and 16, which produced the Turaki-led leadership endorsed by Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, illegal.
In the majority decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the convention was conducted in violation of existing court orders prohibiting the PDP from proceeding with the exercise until specific conditions were met.
The court also chastised the PDP for proceeding with the November 15 and 16 convention despite explicit legal instructions mandating particular criteria before convening it.
The Turaki camp claimed that the three justices (Chioma Nwosu-Iheme, Stephen Adah, and Garba) based their decision on disregarding a legitimate, existing Federal High Court judgment and decided that the appellants could not be heard by the Supreme Court because they were in contempt, resulting in the appeal being dismissed.
The statement partly read, “However, the minority judgments by Justices Haruna Tsammani and Abubakar Umar held that the two appeals emanate from matters that are internal affairs of the PDP and are, therefore, non-justiciable.
“The case at the FHC was not challenging any act or decision of any federal government agency but the leadership contest of the party and is therefore not justiciable.
“Furthermore, they held that it is not the duty of the court to fish out matters to execute the case for the respondent, because the majority judgment undertook the duty of raising matters suo motu without calling on the parties to address them.
“This is against the position of the apex court, wherein parties must be given the opportunity to address the court on matters raised suo motu.
“With this split judgment, which also upheld the Court of Appeal’s suspension of Ajibade, SAN, Anyanwu, and others, this effectively leaves the PDP as a party without a defined leadership.
“To this end, we are certain that the existing organs of the party will take the necessary steps to salvage the party and confer leadership on it going forward.
“This leads the vehicle of our party towards a dangerous bend, which, if not carefully navigated, may not only affect the party but also multi-party democracy in our country.”
