With this verdict by the apex court, Vice President Namadi Sambo, who is expected to lead PDP delegation to Awka, the Anambra State capital, on Saturday, to flag off the party’s campaign and present the its flag to Tony Nwoye as its flag-bearer, has now been stopped by the Supreme Court.
Earlier, the apex court had stopped Andy Ubah from being joined as a party in the appeal seeking to decide who the authentic flag-bearer of the PDP in Anambra State is between Tony Nwoye and Nicholas Ukachukwu.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, had last week ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise Nwoye as the authentic candidate of the party.
The court set aside the judgement of the high court in Port Harcourt, which declared Ukachukwu as the authentic candidate of the party.
Not satisfied, Ukachukwu, through his counsel J.B. Daudu (SAN), approached the apex court to challenge the judgement of the lower court.
During yesterday’s proceedings, Daudu said the court should order a stay of execution of the Court of Appeal decision, adding that the party was planning to hand over the flag to Nwoye on Saturday.
Lawyers to PDP and Nwoye, Paul Erokoro (SAN) and Garba Paul (SAN) respectively, gave an undertaking that neither of their clients will do anything to tamper with the subject matter so as not to overreach the court.
Andy Ubah had earlier through his lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), brought an application seeking leave to be joined as an interested party in the appeal between Tony Nwoye and Nicholas Ukachukwu, which will be coming up before the court next Monday.
All the parties in the appeal agreed not to take any step that will affect the subject matter of the case.
Joined as respondents are the PDP, Independent National Electoral Commission, Tony Nwoye and Nicholas Ukachukwu.
Buhari, Tinubu, Others Woo Kwankwaso
Meanwhile, the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) appears set to reap from the crisis rocking the ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). Kano State governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has come under intense pressure from the APC leadership to come on board. Kwankwaso, a member of the ruling party’s splinter group, new PDP, and of the G-7 governors which emerged in the wake of the controversies that erupted at the August 31 national convention of the PDP, played host to former head of state General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), former governor of Lagos State Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as well as other leaders of the APC.
But as Governor Kwankwaso played host to his guests, his Rivers State counterpart, also a member of the G-7 and new PDP, flew in the same helicopter with President Goodluck Jonathan in Rivers State as the latter arrived in Port Harcourt for the burial of his late mother-in-law.
During the visit, which is coming less than three days after a convergence of five of the G-7 governors, new PDP leaders and the APC leadership in Sokoto, Buhari described the political antecedents of Governor Kwankwaso as worthwhile, adding that APC is incomplete without Kano.
He said: “We are here to convince you that we feel uncomfortable without Kano in our fold; we are a people-oriented party. Our concern is the development of Nigeria and Nigerians. We hope to work with Kwankwaso and to tap from his political goodwill to take over the mantle of national leadership of the country.” Also speaking, the interim national chairman of APC, Chief Bisi Akande, said that whenever small minds were in power, great minds were persecuted. “There are plenty of routes in APC for great minds like Kwankwaso; and on behalf of APC, we are here as campaigners to His Excellency Kwankwaso. This is not about individual preferences, but is about correcting our great party.”
Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha, who spoke on behalf of the governors present on the occasion, said APC was a movement to re-shape Nigeria.
“The victory of APC in 2015 is signed, sealed and delivered. We started this with Kano because we know what Kwankwaso represents in Nigerian development. We are therefore calling on all people of Kano State to know how influential Kwankwaso is in Nigerian politics,” Rochas stated.
In his reply, Governor Kwankwaso expressed his happiness over the calibre of people that visited him to ask for his cross-carpeting to their party. He further revealed that he would sit with other stakeholders in his Kwankwasiyya team before taking a final decision.
He maintained that Kwankwasiyya as a disciplined political movement would sit and take decision at any time from now and in turn pass it to the APC leadership as soon as possible.
“PDP in Kano under Kwankwasiyya movement was much stronger than what it was in 2011. Since Kwankwasiyya was powerful enough to win election in 2011, with the grace of God we are going to make a difference in 2015.”
Others who graced the occasion were the former EFCC boss, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, former governors of Borno and Benue Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and George Akume, and former speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Bello Masari.
Other included the governors of Lagos and Ekiti states, Babatunde Fashola and Kayode Fayemi respectively.
APC also in Jigawa, woos Gov Lamido
Meanwhile, the APC delegation also visited the neighbouring Jigawa State where the team held talks with Governor SuleLamido. The APC team told their host governor to join their rescue mission for the return of peace, unity, stability and good governance in Nigeria.
Jonathan, Amaechi fly in the same helicopter
But, n what signals as the beginning of the end the lingering crisis in the PDP, President Goodluck Jonathan flew in the same chopper with Rivers State governor Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and his Bayelsa State counterpart, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson, from the Port Harcourt International Airport to Okrika also in Rivers State.
Jonathan was in the state to receive an honorary chieftaincy title from the Okrika Divisional Council of Chiefs as well as attend the burial of the late Madam Charity Fyneface Oba, mother of his wife, today.
LEADERSHIP FRIDAY gathered that Amaechi and Dickson, accompanied by their aides, were at the airport to receive the president who, immediately after exchanging pleasantries with them and other dignitaries, beckoned on the two governors to join him in the chopper ride.
Amaechi is one of the seven governors backing the Abubakar Kawu Baraje-led new PDP and is chairman of a faction of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), while Dickson is the chairman of the ruling party’s reconciliation committee.
A political observer who pleaded anonymity told LEADERSHIP FRIDAY, however, that the chopper flight could create an opportunity for Jonathan and Amaechi to talk over their differences and find a possible solution to the crisis that has divided the political class in Rivers State and Nigeria in general.
The Rivers State government has no role to play in the burial of the mother-in-law of the president as the Amaechi-led administration is not involved in the burial programmes. Both politicians had met on Monday, October 7, at the presidential villa, Abuja, a meeting which was summoned by the president to listen to the grouse of the seven aggrieved governors, otherwise referred to as the G-7.
Amaechi, who flew in from Abuja at about 1:45pm, waited for the president whose plane touched down at 2pm. Both governors Amaechi and Dickson waited for the president at the VIP lounge of the airport.
The president flew in about two hours after the service of songs held in honour of the mother of the first lady, Madam Charity Fyneface Oba, who died on July 22, near Isiokpo Brigde along the Port Harcourt-Owerri Road.
The first lady was accompanied to the Port Harcourt Polo Club, venue of the service of songs, by the wife of the vice president, Hajiya Amina Namadi Sambo.
Football and Nollywood stars were also at the service of songs to show solidarity with the first lady. Most of the women clad in specially designed apparels for the occasion went into a frenzy when Patience Ozokwu made her appearance on the ground of the Port Harcourt Polo Club.
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