Supreme Court upholds Markafi-led PDP committee

The Supreme Court has upheld the Ahmed Makarfi led Caretaker committee of the Peoples Democratic Party as the authentic committee.

In its ruling on Wednesday, the Apex Court held that the appeal filed by Makarfi at the Federal High Court in P/H was not an abuse of court process as wrongly held by the majority judgment of the Court of Appeal.

Resolving the preliminary issue, the Supreme Court has dismissed the preliminary objection by the Ali Modu Sheriff faction, holding that the appeal by the Ahmed Makarfi faction was valid.

The second issue formulated is being considered by the Supreme Court. The issue is whether the PDP’s National Convention held on May 21, 2016 and where Sheriff was removed as National Chairman of the party was illegal.

In February, a Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers state affirmed Sen. Ali-Modu Sheriff as the authentic chairman of the PDP.

The appellate court also nullified the party’s National Convention held in the Rivers capital in 2016 and the National Caretaker Committee of the party constituted at the convention.

Two out of the three-member Appeal Court, Justice B.G. Sanga and Justice A. Gumel, in the judgment, said the Port Harcourt convention was an abuse of court process. However the Makafi led faction of the party had vowed to approach the Apex Court.

The National Publicity Secretary of the Committee, Mr Dayo Adeyeye, said then that the judgement was a “big disappointment, travesty and miscarriage of justice”. The minority judgement is very sound in law, logic and fact. It gives us hope that we will have our day in the Supreme Court.

“Whereas the lead judgement left out the main issues and laboured unconvincingly to work to a preconceived answer, the minority judgement thrashed all the issues and upheld the judgement of the High Court in Port Harcourt, delivered by Liman J on July 4, 2016. `

“We will certainly appeal to the Supreme Court. No reconciliatory effort will stop it. We need the Supreme Court to make a pronouncement on the issue, once and for all,’’ he said.