Court orders Nwobu out, Oguebego in
Maduako Igbokwe l Saturday, June 12, 2021
ONITSHA, Anambra, Nigeria – Crisis in Anambra state chapter of the People’s Democratic Party PDP has resurrected following the emergence of two parallel chairmen , courtesy of a Federal High Abuja.
A certain Federal High Court in Abuja had on Wednesday delivered a judgment removing the current state chairman of the party , Chief Ndubuisi Nwobu and replacing him with one Ejike Oguebego .
The controversial judgment is coming just two weeks to the Anambra state PDP Governorship primary election slated for 26th of June 2021. The judgment has created panic and apprehension among the 16 PDP aspirants jostling for the party’s ticket.
Starconnect media gathered that crises are like ritual in PDP every Governorship electioneering year in state. Our reporter also gathered that in the last 18 years , the party had always had problems whenever the state is approaching governorship election .
Meanwhile, Oguebego had ordered for immediate postponement of the ward delegate election slated for the weekend even when the committee set up for the exercise has arrived from Abuja to conduct the election .
Reacting to judgment on Thursday , Ndubuisi Nwobu described it as mercantile ruling that cannot derail PDP from being focus on getting the governorship position in the state. He said the PDP primary will still go on as planned , noting that a similar court of equal jurisdiction had ruled in their favour few years ago .
According to him, the efforts of enemies of PDP will be in futility, because the purported order was wrongly obtained when the courts are on strike.
He also stated the plaintiff in the matter Mr Chukwudi Umeagba and the National leadership of the party have long withdrawn from the matter .
He contended that there is a subsisting order of a Federal High Court, Abuja Federal Capital Territory which is a court of coordinate jurisdiction with purported judgment. According to him, the recent judgment cannot vitiate the initial judgment of Justice A.O .Musa in 2017.
The Justice Musa judgment of 2017 reads in part: “It’s hearby declared that the purported Anambra caretaker committee led by the Sir Chukwudi Umeagba as conveyed by the 1st defendant press statement dated 19th December 2017 is null, void and of no effect being constituted in breach of the extant provisions of the defendant constitution as amended.
“It is hereby ordered that the Executive Committee of the 1st Defendant Anambra state chapter having been duly elected in the state Congress held on the 4th December 2017 ratified by the National Caretaker committee at it’s 449th meeting held on Thursday 7th and Friday 8th December 2017 is valid and subsisting having regard to the fact that it’s tenure is unexhausted “.
According to him, the implications of the above is that there is a valid and subsisting judgment protecting the leadership of Hon Ndubuisi Nwobu led executive committee of the party and the judgment has not been set aside by any appellate court .
“It is binding on all until set aside by any Appellate Court” Nwobu said.
According to the suit filed by Oguebego, he claimed that there was no validly constituted Congress that elected Ndubuisi Nwobu as state chairman of the party.
According his prayers , before the Presidential Primary election of the party in Rivers State only the local government and ward congresses were conducted adding that Nwobu was sworn in as caretaker chairman of the party.
Deepening the confusion further the sixteen aspirants of the party are at sea over their fate in the June 26th Primary election if the exercise would actually take place following the recent judgment.
None of the aspirants offered to comment on the situation as according to them it is subjudice and contemptuous of the court process.
Since 2010 the Ejike Oguebego faction of the party has been laying claim to the chairmanship of the PDP in Anambra state when Prince Kenneth Emeakayi was also insisting that he was the duly elected chairman of the party.
