Court Nullifies Appointment Of Ekiti PDP Caretaker Committee

The appointment of the Peoples Democratic Party Caretaker Committee in Ekiti State has been declared null and void by an Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti Division.

Justice Olusegun Ogunyemi reinstated the Alaba Agboola-led party’s State Working Committee.

The party’s National Working Committee abolished the state executives in June and formed a caretaker committee led by Sadiq Obanoye.

Dissatisfied with the dissolution, the Agboola-led SWC filed a lawsuit with the case number HAD/90/2023 against the PDP acting National Chairman, Umar Damagun, and two others.

In his ruling on Tuesday, Justice Ogunyemi declared the party’s dissolution of the Ekiti State Executive Committee null and illegal and dismissed the caretaker committee constituted by the NWC.

The judge granted an order of perpetual injunction “restraining Damagun and the PDP, their agents or any person or body of persons acting under the directives or instruction of the first and second defendants from recognising or further recognising the third defendant (Obanoye) and the other members of the Ekiti State PDP caretaker committee as persons entitled to the affairs of the Ekiti State Chapter of the PDP.”

The court also granted an order of perpetual injunction “restraining Obanoye (third defendant) and other members of the Ekiti State PDP caretaker committee from parading themselves as Ekiti State caretaker committee of the PDP as well as running the affairs of the Ekiti State chapter of the PDP.”

Reacting to the judgment, Agboola said, “The next step is to make sure that we bring the PDP back to winning ways, bring everybody together and follow the rules of law and the constitution of the party in our decisions. That is the only way PDP as a body can move forward.

We are a democratically elected exco, we were dissolved without reason. We felt that our only saviour was the court of law

“Whatever happens, we are committed to the progress of the party, we are loyal to the national body and we are ready to operate with it in any way or form to move the party forward. We are always ready, we are only upholding the rule of law and the constitution of the party.”
(Punch)