A group, Northern Youths United Against Impunity in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has faulted a report credited to the National Caretaker Committee of the PDP that the dejure National Chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, was being used by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) against PDP, stating that the statement is a propaganda and cheap blackmail against the former governor of Borno State.

In a statement issued yesterday and signed by the group's national coordinator, Alhaji Tanko Yunusa, the youths said the view by the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led panel lacks the facts and adequate information to address the contending issues.
"If they say it is the APC that is using Senator Sheriff to destabilize our party, shall we also say it was the APC that used Governor Ayo Fayose and others who brought him and sold him to other stakeholders as the “messiah” the party needed?"

Speaking on the alleged complicity levelled against the police by the caretaker committee, the group said security agents at the party's National Secretariat are acting within their constitutionally guaranteed powers to maintain law and order.

"They (Police) acted responsibly and respectfully in obedience to the orders of the Federal High Court, Lagos made on the 24th of May, 2016.
"On that day, the court said, “The Inspector-General of Police is hereby directed that there is a matter pending in court filed by the warring PDP and the court has made an order of interlocutory injunction in respect of offices occupied by the Plaintiffs and there are applications and appeals pending.

“The Police is directed to enforce the orders of this court until all the applications before the court are disposed off, so that there will be no anarchy.”

On the purported decision of the party's National Convention, Yunusa queried if there could be a valid National Convention if the National Chairman, who is mandatorily expected, according to provisions of Article 33 Section1 and Subsection 1a of the PDP constitution, to preside over the National Convention had announced the postponement of the convention after a meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) to that effect?

The group's leader also highlighted that Article 29 1(b) of the PDP constitution empowers the NWC to act on behalf of the National Executive Committee in case of emergency as in the extant case.

"On whether or not the exparte order granted by the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, Rivers State is still subsisting or not, credible information available to us has it that when the matter came up on the 7th of June, 2016, the motion to set aside the Exparte Order made by Justice I. Liman of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt on the 23rd of May 2016, the application to strike PDP out as Plaintiff due to the illegitimacy of the caretaker committee to invoke the corporate personality of the PDP and the challenge to the court's jurisdiction were introduced by the lead counsel to Sheriff and Prof. Wale Oladipo, Prince Ajibola Oluyede.
"The court could not proceed with the matters because the Plaintiff was not ready with a response to the three applications though they had been served five days earlier.

"The Plaintiff's lawyer insisted on an adjournment though the court pointed out that its ex parted order made on the 23rd of May, 2016 would lapse 14 days after our lawyers file a motion to discharge it, and wanted to hear it before it lapsed. It is trite that since the motion to discharge the order having been filed on 26th of May 2016, the exparte order automatically lapsed on Thursday, 9th of June, 2016.

"The matter was adjourned to tomorrow (Thursday), 16th June 2016, for hearing of all the other pending applications and the Originating Summons.

"It should however be noted that the same people who vilify Sheriff and others for going to the courts have also resorted to the same court seeking to confer legitimacy on the happenings in Port Harcourt."

Speaking further, Yunusa said the issue of tenure shouldn't have been a point of discord within the party if elected officials are allowed to serve out their terms.

"It is an indubitable fact that our great party held a Special National Convention on the 10th and 11th December, 2014 where the National Chairman, Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Muazu; National Secretary, Prof. Adewale Oladipo and National Auditor, Alhaji Adewale Adeyanju were elected. At that same convention, Section 47 (6) of our party constitution was amended by substituting the last phrase “pending the conduct of election to fill the vacancy” with a new phrase “to serve out the tenure of the Officer”.

"It is the considered view of not just the plaintiffs but also some stakeholders that since these officers came into office or were deemed to have assumed office in December, 2014, they have a four-year tenure which elapses in December, 2018.
"But, their opponents think otherwise and that is why they are in court in order for the court to make a pronouncement on who is right or wrong.

"Again, we are not unmindful that these are issues that concern a political party and they are better resolved politically. But a situation where the supposed conscience of the party and those who are supposed to be the custodians of the law seek to violate the constitution of the party and flagrantly disobey court orders leaves much to be desired.

"For instance, the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the PDP should not have allowed the same elements who brought this mess upon the party to hurry it to handover the party secretariat to the Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee without pacifying the contending parties and resolving all the issues in a give and take manner.

"Perhaps whatever decisions are reached in such negotiations could be entered as consent judgments which could fast-track the out-of-court settlement and the resolution of the issues."