Court restrains PDP from removing Damagum as acting chairman

A federal high court in Abuja has restrained the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from replacing Umar Damagum as the acting chairman.

The suit, marked FCH/ABJ/CS/579/2024, was filed by Umar El-Gash Maina and Zanna Mustapha Gaddama on May 2.

The respondents in the suit are the PDP, the national working committee (NWC), the national executive committee (NEC), the PDP board of trustees (BoT), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Delivering a ruling on the motion ex parte on May 3, Peter Lifu, the presiding judge, made an interim order restraining the respondents from nominating anybody to replace Damagum, pending the determination of the motion on notice.

“The defendants/respondents are hereby restrained in the interim from appointing, selecting, or nominating any person to replace Amb. Umar Illiya Damagum as 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 the 14th of May, 2024,” the judge ruled.

“The defendants/respondents, by themselves, agents, privies, or by any proxy, are hereby in the interim restrained from, according to recognition, any person other than Amb. 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 Amb. 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 adjourned the case to May 14 for a hearing of the motion on notice.

Damagum became acting chairman of the PDP following the suspension of Iyorchia Ayu in March 2023.

Before the NEC meeting in April, PDP members loyal to Atiku Abubakar, the former vice-president, had moved against Damagum over allegations that he was working for Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT).

Those demanding Damagum’s resignation also argued that there was a need for someone from the north-central to take over and complete Ayu’s tenure.

However, Wike, who holds a significant influence in the party, had been pushing for Damagum to continue in his position.

On April 18, the NWC of the PDP passed a vote of confidence in Damagum.