Court stops Baraje and others from parading as PDP exco

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The leaders of the New Peoples Democratic Party suffered an important setback on Friday being an Abuja Federal High Court restrained them from parading themselves since the national executive committee members of the party.

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The New PDP, led with a former Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, was equally restrained from operating parallel national, state, local government area and ward offices of the party.
The Independent National Electoral Commission was also ordered to refrain from recognising, dealing and relating with the New PDP.

The court, presided over by Justice Elvis Chukwu, made the order while delivering judgment in a suit in that the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur-led faction of the party asked it to stop the Baraje-led group from further parading themselves since the party's elected executive officers.

The defendants in the suit – Baraje, Dr. Sam Jaja, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar – were backed by seven state governors, including Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers).

The New PDP had, through their counsel, Ahmed Raji, SAN, and Robert Clarke, SAN, asked the court to decline jurisdiction in the situation, arguing that the dispute was an internal affair of a political party, and as a result, not justicable.  In his judgment in the situation on Friday, Justice Chukwu dismissed all of the objections raised by the New PDP, and instead held that the Tukur faction had proved its case since the authentic, elected national officers of the PDP.