PDP Crisis Worsens as Federal High Court Sacks Ahmed Makarfi, Declares Every Action He has taken Illegal

Ahmed Makarfi (L) and Ali Modu Sheriff (R)

A Federal High Court in Abuja has endorsed the appointment of Ali Modu Sheriff as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman.

Delivering the ruling, Justice Okon Abang declared that the party’s national convention in Port Harcourt was illegal.

Abang also declared as illegal, every action of the party’s caretaker committee led by Ahmed Makarfi which was appointed during the convention.

According to DAILYPOST, Abang said:

Parties have an uncompromising duty to obey court order until it is set aside. The Lagos Division made orders on May 12 and 20, forbidding the PDP from removing the Sheriff-led Caretaker Committee. That order is still subsisting.

Having regard to the order of the court, PDP had no lawful authority to hold the convention that led to the emergence of the Makarfi-led Committee.

The convention was unlawfully held and the Caretaker Committee was unlawfully and illegally appointed and could not take any legal decision for the PDP in view of the subsisting order of the Lagos Division of this court.

Consequently, any action taken by the Makarfi-led Committee, including the purported mandate for legal representation in this matter is hereby declared illegal.

If the Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee, as apostles of impunity, missed their way to the Port Harcourt division of this court, that court could not have conveniently assumed jurisdiction to set aside the earlier decision of the Lagos Division.

I hold that the Port Harcourt division of this court cannot make an order to neutralise the potency of the Lagos Division of this court dated 12 and 20 May.

Ali Modu Sheriff is the National Chairman of the PDP. Any decision not taken by the Sheriff-led Committee is not binding on the PDP.