The past few weeks can be likened to a high school bully experience in the PDP, as Ali Modu-Sheriff who was sacked from office as chairman of the party by the Governors and principal committee of the party, replacing him with Senator Ahmed Makafi had refused to accept the decision and continued parading himself as the chairman of the party; last week led a protest with his supporters to forcefully take over the PDP Secretariat in Abuja. He was also believed to have made plans to cancel the just concluded PDP Governorship primaries in Edo state citing sharp practices.

This prompted the party to drag Sheriff before a Federal High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Apo, Abuja, which on Wednesday ordered the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) factional Chairman, Ali Modu- Sheriff and other officers of the party to refrain from parading themselves in those capacities.

Justice Valentine Ashi of Court 29, High Court of the FCT, Apo, in his ruling specifically restrain “individuals currently parading themselves as the national officers of the PDP on the basis of  the purported amendment to the PDP constitution at a special convention held in Abuja on December 10 and 11, 2014,” from doing so.

“By the 2014 amendment and effected on Article 47 Paragraph 6 of the PDP Constitution, in case of any vacancy, the party NEC will appoint an Acting Chairman from the area or zone where the last occupant of the offices comes from pending when election is conducted to reflect where there is a vacancy. The Acting Chairman shall serve the tenure of the officer who left before the expiration of the tenure,” the party said.

Justice Ashi declared the 2014 amendment  illegal on the ground that the party did not comply with Section 66(2) (3) of its constitution by not serving the National Secretary with a written copy of the proposed amendment two months before the convention, while the Secretary was also required to circulate the amendment among state secretaries of the party a month before the convention.

The judge, who stressed the need for PDP to strictly adhere to the provisions in its constitution, noted that the insertion of the clauses in section 66(2) and (3) was to deepen democracy in the party.

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