The Benue State High Court in sitting in Makurdi has ordered the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, to stop parading himself as the chairman of the party, and this order came barely 24 hours after the executive committee of the party at his(Ayu’s) ward — Igyorov Ward in Benue State suspended him.
Penpushing reports that the judge, Justice W. I Kpochi, on Monday, who gave the order issued an interim injunction restraining Ayu from parading himself as the national chair of the troubled Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The judge issued the order following an ex parte application by a member of the party in Benue State, Terhide Utaan, which the embattled Ayu and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) joined as respondents to the application but were neither present nor represented by their lawyers in court.
Penpushing further reports that the order subsists pending the hearing and determination of the motion, while this court order brings back the memory of how Ayu’s predecessor, Uche Secondus, was forced out of the party after he was suspended by the ward and restrained by a court order.
“An order of interim injunction restraining the 1st defendant Senator Dr Iyorchia Ayu from parading himself as the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) having lost membership of the party, pending the hearing and determination of Motion on Notice already filed,” the order reads.
Penpushing also reports that it is recalled that Ayu had earlier rejected his suspension by the ward executive declaring that they lack the powers to suspend him, pointing out that his suspension from the party violated its constitution.
The embattled politician in a statement issued on Monday by his media aide, Simon Imobo-Tswam, said the letter issued by the ward executive is against Article 57(7) of the PDP Constitution as Amended in 2017.
“Article 57(7) of the PDP Constitution as Amended in 2017 expressly prohibits any organ of the party or executive committee of the party at the Ward or State Level from taking any disciplinary measure against any member of the party’s National Executive Committee’, he argued.
‘The purported suspension is, therefore, an exercise in futility as it derives its strength majorly from gross illiteracy, ignorance, gambling and desperation. It has only mischief, drama and propaganda value,” the statement read in part.
“From what we know, the document itself is fraudulent as the signatures of the Ward Executives were forged or obtained under duress. The chairman, his deputy and his legal adviser didn’t sign. The 14th person on the list didn’t sign too. She was at NKST Ambighir for the Holy Communion,” he said.
Penpushing also reports that Ayu who has been controlling a faction of the party called on the general public and advised them to ignore rumours to this heinous effect, stressing that those behind the plot are only investing in expensive illusions.
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