PDP suspends Tukur

National Working Committee, NWC, of the Peoples Democratic, PDP, yesterday suspended for one month the party’s immediate past National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, for attempting to unseat his successor, Dr. Adamu Mu’azu, in court.

The party further referred Tukur’s action to its Disciplinary Committee for necessary action.

An Abuja High Court had on Tuesday dismissed a case which Tukur joined to remove Mu’azu on the ground that he did not voluntarily resign from office.

The decision to suspend Tukur was taken at 395th meeting of the NWC which deliberated on the court case.

In a statement after the NWC meeting, PDP National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwon, said that Tukur breached the party’s constitution by dragging Mu’azu to court without exhausting internal mechanisms of the party.

“The NWC reasoned that for instituting a claim and counterclaim in suit FHC/ABJ /821/2014; Gurin vs PDP and 3 others without first exploring and exhausting the party’s internal mechanism of redress and for attempting to stop the forthcoming national convention to nominate the party’s presidential candidate as well as regularise the position of the national chairman and other members of the NWC is unacceptable.

“The NWC hereby suspends Dr. Bamanga Tukur and Aliyu Abuba Gurin for one month and refers them to the National Disciplinary Committee for infringing on section 58(1) (a) (b) (h) (l) of the PDP Constitution 2012(as amended)”

Meanwhile, Tukur has denied that he instituted the case against Mu’azu, saying he was listed as one of the defendants in the case instituted by one Alhaji Aliyu Buba Gurin.

Through his Special Assistant on Media, Prince Oliver Okpala, Tukur said that there are misrepresentations of facts on the case.

“It must be put forward in its proper legal and historical perspective that Dr. Bamanga Tukur never initiated nor filed any case against Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu contrary to reports making headlines in the national dailies and waves in the social media.

“The wrongful report and misrepresentation of facts to the effect that Alhaji Tukur filed a case urging the court to oust Mu’azu from office as national chairman of the PDP is not only untrue but gross distortion of facts relating to the case instituted and filed by Alhaji Gurin.

“Alhaji Tukur was joined in the suit as a co-defendant in the suit and as is required in law filed his own counter affidavit stating his side of the case in relation to the suit filed by the plaintiff.

“A co-defendant in a case cannot by any imagination in law be deemed as a plaintiff who initiated and filed a suit before a law court. Let it be also noted that at no time did Alhaji Tukur react to the court judgement and did not inform any reporter or journalist as being erroneously reported that he “has vowed to challenge the judgement at the Court of Appeal,” he said.

At another forum, Tukur, through his lawyer, Mr. Adamson Adeboro, told judicial correspondents in Abuja yesterday that his client was joined as a defendant in the matter by Gunrin.

He said that he only filed a counter-claim on behalf of the former chairman.

Adamson said: “My client, Bamanga Tukur was not the plaintiff in the suit filed to oust Adamu Mu’azu. As a matter of fact, he was joined as 2nd defendant in the suit.”

PDP inaugurates convention committee

And ahead of the December 10 National Convention of the PDP, Mu’azu yesterday inaugurated the convention planning committee.

Addressing members of the committee, Mu’azu commended them for honouring the party’s invitation to appear for the inauguration despite the short notice.

He said they had exhibited high level of commitment and loyalty to the party and urged them to work together as a team towards the successful conduct of the convention where President Goodluck Jonathan would be formally ratified as the PDP presidential candidate.

In his response, the committee’s chairman, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, said the task before the panel was daunting and required them to work 24 hours till the convention date.

He said notwithstanding the onerous task they would deliver on their mandate.