By Johnson Chuks, Abuja
Former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Bamanga Tukur, has been suspended over his recent failed court action against the party.
Tukur was suspended alongside a member of the party Mr. Aliyu Gurin at the 395th meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party for one month.
Gurin and three others had dragged PDP to court seeking to unseat the incumbent National Chairman, Mr. Adamu Mu’azu and to return Tukur back to office. The case was dismissed last Tuesday by an Abuja federal high court.
But the party in a statement by its National Legal Adviser, Mr. Victor Kwon, Thursday in Abuja, said it “reviewed recent national developments as they affect the party” and decided to suspend the duo.
After its deliberation, “among others, the NWC reasoned that for instituting a claim and counter claim in suit FHC/ABJ /821/2014; Gurin vs PDP & 3 others without first exploring and exhausting the party’s internal mechanism of redress and for attempting to stop the forthcoming National Convention to nominate the party’s presidential candidate as well as regularize the position of the National Chairman and other members of the National Working Committee is unacceptable,” the party said in a statement.
The party then referred the matter to the National Disciplinary Committee for infringing on section 58(1)(a)( b)( h)( l) of the PDP Constitution 2012( as amended).
It would be recalled that Tukur, who was the second defendant in the suit, brought a counter claim supporting all the reliefs sought by the plaintiff.
Delivering his judgment, the trial judge, Justice Evoh Chukwu held that the plaintiff lacked the legal right to institute such suit on the ground that the interest he canvassed was not different from that of every other member of the party.
He also dismissed the counter affidavit brought by Tukur, seeking his reinstatement, saying “the defendants in this suit have complied with Section 47 of the party constitution by appointing Mu’azu from the same geographical region of the resigned chairman.”
