PDP Crisis and National Stability by Reuben Abati
The crisis in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) came to a head over the weekend that just passed, November 15 -16 when a group of PDP elders, they refuse to be called a faction but that is what they look like, decided against the background of fierce legal battles, to hold the party’s elective conference in Ibadan, Oyo State.
They were hosted by Governor Seyi Makinde, the PDP Governor of Oyo State. The build up to that convention was marked by battles in the Federal High Court and the Oyo state High Court with the judges in both courts cancelling each other out. On Friday, Nov. 14, to be specific, Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court at about 8.30 am had ordered a suspension of the PDP Convention. Before him, Justice James Omotoso also of the Federal High Court had given a similar order. By 2. 30 pm on Nov. 14, the same day, Justice Ladiran Akintola of the Oyo State High Court gave a different ruling to the effect that the Convention should go ahead, and that INEC should oversee the elections at the convention.
Under the Electoral Act 2022, Section 84 (14), the jurisdiction for determining party conventions rests with the Federal High Courts. Where Courts within the same hierarchical order give the same orders, it is trite law that the latest in time prevails. By some display of cleverness, forum shopping and mischief, the faction of the PDP that gathered in Ibadan thus outsmarted the Wike faction for the want of a better label. They insist therefore that the PDP convention in Ibadan was validly conducted, and it stands.
They point to the fact that the absence of INEC electoral observers was immaterial, not a required condition for the legitimacy of the exercise. Section 82 (1) of the Electoral Act states that a political party– “shall give the Commission at least 21 days’ notice of any convention, congress, conference, or meeting…” which the organisers of the Ibadan convention insist that they complied with. In Section 82(2) of the same may Act, INEC “may, with or without prior notice to the political party attend and observe any convention, congress, conference or meeting which is convened by a political party…” In other words, the absence of INEC observers at the Ibadan PDP Convention did not render the event invalid.
The major development at the Convention was the emergence of a new National Working Committee, with Kabiru Tanimu Turaki (KT) SAN, from Kebbi State, and former Minister of Special Duties in the Jonathan administration elected as new Chairman of the party and Chairman of NEC., and Chairman of the Convention along with other new officials of the party. A total of 3, 131 delegates registered for the Convention, both statutory and elected. About 2, 745 were in attendance. Delegates from Taraba arrived after accreditation had been completed and voting had commenced so they could not vote.
There were no delegates from Sokoto (Senator Aminu Tambuwal’s state) and Jigawa state (where former Governor Sule Lamido hails from) and just a handful of anti-Wike delegates from Rivers State. The Governor of Rivers State, Sim Fubara stayed away, the PDP Governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke was represented by his Deputy.
But the high point of the convention was when a voice vote was taken to expel 11 chieftains of the party on the grounds of indiscipline and anti-party activities. They include former Governor of Rivers State now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike, former Governor of Ekiti State, Chief Ayo Fayose, and nine others who are well-known Wike loyalists in the party. The resolution was proposed by Chief Olabode George, a founding father of the party, and a would-be octogenarian (he turns 80 on November 21). He is also a former Wike ally. The proposal…
