PDP Crisis: Court Reinstates Sheriff’s Faction

A Federal High Court siting in Abuja has nullified the national convention held by the Peoples Democratic Party on May 21 in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, saying the Sen. Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party is illegal.

Justice Okon Abang said this in preliminary ruling in an application filed the Ali Modu Sheriff-faction of the party.

It was at that convention that the National Working Committee of the party led by former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff was dissolved and a caretaker committee led by former Governor Ahmed Markarfi was constituted.

The Sheriff faction of the party had filed an application on July 4 for an interlocutory injunction seeking to stop the national convention of the party, which was planned by the Makarfi faction and scheduled for August 17.

The faction said it filed the suit numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/464/2016 for themselves and on behalf of the Executive Committee/National Working Committee of the PDP.

The suit has only the Independent National Electoral Commission and the PDP as the defendants.

The plaintiffs had contended that that by virtue of the PDP’s Constitution, they must remain in office till 2018.

They also urged the court to declare all moves aimed at removing, replacing or conducting fresh elections into their offices as illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void.

Group Urges Buhari to Name Aso Rock After Gen Aguiyi Ironsi

Fifty years after the first military coup d’état which tragically claimed the life of the then Head of State, Late General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi, Ohanaeze Youth Council, OYC, has called on the Federal Government to immortalize the slain Head of State.

Ohanaeze Youths argued that the late Ironsi staked his life for the unity of the country and therefore, deserved to be immortalized and given his proper place in the annals of Nigerian history, according to a report by Vanguard Newspaper.

In a press statement issued by its National President, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, Ohanaeze Youth Council expressed great regret that 50 years after his tragic death, the Federal Government was yet to immortalize Ironsi “who staked his life to unite Nigeria”.

OYC suggested that the Federal Government should “name the nation’s seat of power, Aso Rock after the late Head of State in recognition of his invaluable sacrifices for the unity of Nigeria.”

According to the statement, while the masterminds of the heinous act “are still moving around and parading themselves as statesmen, the members of Aguiyi Ironsi’s family have continued to wallow in pains and poverty.”

OYC therefore, enjoined the Federal and as well as the various State Governments to give attention to the welfare of the family to assuage their pains.

Meanwhile, the Aguiyi Ironsi family is organizing a memorial service in Umuahia to mark the 50 years anniversary of the tragic death of their father.

According to the matriarch of the family and wife of the late General, Lady Victoria Aguiyi Ironsi, a church service will hold today at the Mater Dei Catholic Cathedral, Umuahia, which will be followed by a reception at the family house.