Opposition Lawmakers in the House of Representatives, known as G60, have said that they uncovered a plot that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, and the National Working Committee (NWC) have allegedly sold the party and secretly filed court papers to bring back sacked 27 lawmakers of Rivers State House of Assembly back to office to revive plan to allegedly remove Governor Similayi Fubara.
At a world press conference held in Abuja on Thursday, the lawmakers displayed evidence of the court affidavit filed by PDP using FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike’s lawyer, Joshua Musa, SAN as a counsel.
Speaking at the press conference, the spokesperson of the G60 lawmakers, Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, described the court documents as shameful act of betrayal, and evidence of a compromised NWC that must be dissolved now.
In a suit no: FHC/PH/CS/90/2024 dated May 14, 2024, between the remaining Rivers State House of Assembly members and the sacked lawmakers, who defected to the APC from PDP, the applicants wre praying for the reliefs, which include; “An order joining the PDP as 30 defendant in the suit, An order for the amendment of all processes in this suit to reflect the name of the People’s Democratic Party as the defendant in this suit, and for any other orders as the honourable court may seem fit to make in the circumstances.”
In the affidavit in support of motion for joinder, part 7 states that the 30th defendant has not received any notice of resignation from the wards of the 1st -27th defendants yet and consequently cannot say that they have defected. Paragraph 10 states that in further response to paragraph 20(1) of the affidavit in support of the originating summons, the 30th defendant is not aware that the 1st – 27th defendants renounced their membership of the People’s Democratic Party or defected to the APC aside the rumours being peddled on social media.
Ugochinyere expressing shock and disbelief to the content of the suit, said Wike through Damagum was set to destroy the party and allow the sacked APC lawmakers to come back through the backdoor.
He said, “Gentlemen, thank you for your urgent response to our call to you this morning. We really appreciate the members of the fourth estate for the thankless job you all do for our country and our democracy. We have called you today to give you update of the recent happenings in the PDP following the now confirmed reports which spread from late week about the PDP filing papers in court secretly in aid of the defected 27 member of the Rivers State House of Assembly who are no longer lawmakers after they left PDP for APC and their seats were declared vacant. While we cannot speak about the issues of bribery allegations and the receipt of the sum of $2m by those behind this shocking act of betrayal of their own party, we can however authoritatively speak to you about only what we can and have confirmed to be facts and to be true.
“Recall that the PDP through the legal adviser deliberately mislead the public and party members when he denied the allegations of existence of such a legal process where PDP Headquarters gave authorisation for the sacked APC Lawmakers to be reinstated using one Dr.Musa Joshua SAN. Fellow Party men, the party headquarters lied and here today, we have the hard evidence and copy of the documents to show what those we left in Wadata house are capable of doing to their own party which is the reason we insisted we cant leave those already in bed with APC as our party’s Officials.
“We can therefore confirm to you that the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, has filed a Motion for joinder in Suit No. FHC/PH/CS/90/2024 filed by the remaining members of the Rivers State House of Assembly to declare the seats of the 27 defected members of the Assembly vacant. We can also confirm that the PDP led by Umar Damagun and his legal adviser Ajibade using a personal lawyer of FCT Minister Wike also filed a Counter Affidavit to the said suit and a written address opposing the prayers to declare the seats vacant and insisting that the sacked APC lawmakers are still PDP members and should be left alone to continue the activities against the PDP led govt in Rivers State. The position of the PDP was that it was the only party that can say who its members are and that the 27 members are still members of the Party.
“We can also confirm to you that the processes were filed by Dr. Joshua Musa, SAN who is a well-known lawyer of the Minister of FCT Nyesom Wike and his interests. The legal adviser with permission of the PDP Chairman deliberately assigned and authorised the FCT Minister lawyer to take the case knowing fully well that PDP Interest will be butchered , So we can say that for a fact that Wike’s lawyer is representing PDP and is pushing Wike’s interest which is clearly against that of the PDP as these defected lawmakers are seeking ways to illegally impeach the PDP Governor of Rivers State, Governor Siminalayi Fubara. Again whether money exchanged hands to allow this type of absurd situation cannot be confirmed but that information by that Mallam Abubakar Isa who alleged that there was financial inducement pushed us into the field to ascertain the true position and these are our findings,” the member of House of Representatives representing Ideato North/South federal constituency of Imo State stated.
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