Bamanga Tukur's PDP Sues New PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party has asked a Federal High Court, Abuja, to commit to prison the New PDP officials led by Alhaji Kawu Baraje for alleged contempt of court.

The PDP under Alhaji Bamanga Tukur also urged the court to jail the Baraje-led faction’s National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Dr. Sam Jaja.

The three had sued Tukur; the Deputy National Chairman, Uche Secondus; National Women Leader, Dr. Kema Chikwe; and National Publicity Olisah Metuh.

The Tukur faction in  response to the Baraje faction’s court action, filed the contempt suit against the three on Wednesday.

Counsel for Tukur’s PDP, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede, who made the court papers available to journalists at a briefing in Lagos, said he was directed by the faction to file the contempt suit..

Oluyede also added that he had also filed a preliminary objection against the suit filed by the Baraje faction at a Lagos High Court, Ikeja.

Baraje and his faction had filed the suit seeking an order to restrain Tukur and other members of his executive council from further parading themselves as officials of the PDP.

But the Tukur faction, through its newly-filed contempt suit, is seeking to jail Baraje, Oyinlola and Jaja for a minimum of one year each for allegedly violating a judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

The judgment was said to have been delivered on January 11, 2013 in a suit tagged FHC/ABJ/504/2013.

The contempt suit was filed on behalf of the Tukur faction by Chief Adedayo Dayo and Semiu Sodipo, who had initiated the suit which its judgment was allegedly flouted by the Baraje group.

Dayo and Sodipo had filed the suit on which judgment was delivered on January 11, for themselves and the Executive Committee of the party in Ogun State.

The alleged contemnors  were said to have violated the judgment of the Federal High Court, which nullified Oyinlola’s candidacy as a nominee of the South-West Zonal Chapter of the PDP.

The Tukur’s PDP said Oyinlola, “with guilty knowledge” “appointed and declared” himself as the National Secretary of the PDP “for the purpose of rendering the judgment of the Federal High Court nugatory.”

The faction alleged that Oyinlola conspired with Baraje and Jaja to take actions in violation of the court’s judgment and by so doing, “obstructed the administration of justice.”

The applicants said the alleged contemnors acted to subvert the appeal filed by Oyinlola against the Federal High Court’s judgment  by taking it upon themselves to overrule the judgment and appoint Oyinlola to the office.

“The alleged contemnors have, since the delivery of the said judgment, committed additional acts of criminal contempt by conspiring to flout the purpose of the court as pronounced in its said judgment and the authority of the court in so pronouncing,” the applicants  said.