Fresh crisis hit the Enugu State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday as its former National Auditor, Mr Ray Nnaji returned to the Federal High Court, Enugu, asking it to determine the authentic leadership of the party in the state.
Nnaji, who on Monday sought the joining of the party’s national chairman Adamu Muazu, national secretary Adewale Oladipo and South-East zonal chairman, Austin Akobundu in the suit, warned the Vita Abba led state executive to steer clear of further actions on 2015 polls until the matter was resolved.
DailyPost reports that there have been dissenting voices since Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was announced as the party’s consensus candidate for the 2015 guber polls.
Senator Ayogu Eze and other guber aspirants have expressed displeasure over the emergence of the consensus candidate.
It could be re-called that Nnaji filed the suit first in 2008 after a parallel congress of the party in Enugu, which produced him and Abba.
The matter could not be resolved following an appeal against the ruling of the court on preliminary objection on the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the matter.
Later in 2010, the suit was adjourned sine die, pending the determination and hearing of the appeal filed by Abba.
Abba was said to have withdrawn the appeal and same struck out by the court.
Following the development, Nnaji had approached the court for the re-listing of the matter, which was formerly in court 1 and the Court on Monday gave its approval and transferred the matter to court 2 for hearing.
Although no date has been fixed for the commencement of hearing on the suit, Nnaji stated that the matter had been delayed due to the absence of a Judge at the Court 1 of the federal high court, Enugu.
The last Judge was moved in February this year.
He told Journalists that until the matter was resolved, all the claims by anybody against 2015 in the state was not genuine, insisting that he decided to give life to the matter because “Governor Chime and his Chief of Staff, Ifeoma Nwobodo are messing up PDP in the state”.
He said: “The issue of political structure of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu state has not been resolved; the matter was sometime suspended because there was an appeal by Vita Abba, who lost at the federal high court challenging the jurisdiction of the court.
“Along the line, he withdrew the application and it was struck out. Now the matter has resumed at Court 1, there is no Judge in court one presently and we had to apply for transfer to Court 2 which has been approved and a date is being awaited. The matter was filed in 2008 and adjourned sine die in 2010, pending an appeal withdrawn and struck out.
“I want to tell you that the matter is alive and whoever is doing anything while the matter is alive is wasting his time. If anybody is doing anything now on the ground that there has been another congress since then, he should go and read Omehia Vs Amaechi and know what Supreme Court says when a matter is pending in court”.
On the purported endorsement of Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi as consensus governorship candidate, Nnaji said: “The party constitution did not say you should select. If Chime thinks he can hand pick anybody, he is making a great mistake because the issue of the party structure in Enugu state is yet to be resolved by the court. All that they are doing is to cause problems in the state. They want people to believe that something is happening when nothing is happening. Chime and his Chief of Staff have killed Enugu politics and what they are doing now is killing PDP and pretending they are helping the party.”
It could be recalled that parallel congress of the party in 2008 had produced Nnaji and Abba.
While Nnaji faction was loyal to the former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani, Abba’s faction was loyal to Sullivan Chime.
Nnaji’s faction, which then had the support of the Ahmadu Ali led national executive, fell out of favour when Prince Vincent Ogbulafor emerged the national chairman of the party and started relating with the Abba led executive.
Feeling cheated, Nnaji and his executive had gone to court to assert its stand as the authentic leadership of the party in the state.
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