Justice Peter Lifu of High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has stopped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from removing its national chairman, Ambassador Umar Illiya Damagum, from office.
The court granted the order after a motion moved by M. O. Onyilokwu, counsel to the plaintiff/applicant.
Justice Lifu held, “The defendants/respondents are hereby restrained in the interim, from appointing, selecting, nominating any person to replace Ambassador Umar Illiya Damagum as the national chairman or acting national chairman of the 1st defendant/respondent pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filed which is herein fixed against on May 4, 2024.
“The defendants/respondents by themselves, agents, privies or by any proxy, are hereby in the interim, restrained from according recognition to any person other than Ambassador Umar Illiya Damagum as acting national chairman of the 1st defendants/respondents or giving effect to or acting upon any document purporting to be signed by the national chairman or acting national chairman of the 1st defendant without the name and signature of Ambassador Umar Illiya Damagum pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filed in Court in the instant suit.
“The applicants are herein ordered to enter into a fresh undertaking to pay damages to the respondents (to be assessed by the court) if at the end of the day it is discovered that this order ought not to have been granted or that the honourable court was misled into granting the same.”
The court gave the order in a motion ex-parte filed by Senator Umar El-Gash Maina and Alhaji Zanna Gaddama, in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/579/2024.
The respondents in the motion filed on May 2, 2024, are the PDP, National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, National Executive Committee (NEC), Board of Trustees (BoT) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the motion paper, the plaintiff had prayed for “an order of interim injunction restraining the 1st to 4th defendants/respondents, their agents, privies by whatsoever name called from appointing, selecting or nominating any person to replace Damagum as national chairman or acting national chairman of the 1st defendant/respondent pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.
“An order of interim injunction restraining the 5th defendant/respondent, its agents, officers or privies from according recognition to any person other than Ambassador Umar Illiya Damaguma as acting national chairman of the 1st defendant/respondent or giving effect to or acting upon any document purporting to be signed by the national chairman or acting national chairman of the 1st defendant/respondent without the name and signature of Ambassador Umar Illiyan Damagum as the acting national chairman pending the hearing and a determination of the motion on notice.
The affidavit in support of the application, an affidavit of extreme urgency and that of non-multiplicity of action, accompanying the ex-parte application were all deposed to by Ambassador Umar El-Gasha Maina.