The caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has warned against the judiciary being used to threaten democracy in the country.
The committee issued the warning against the backdrop of developments in Abia, Edo and within the party.
The spokesperson of the caretaker committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, who spoke in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, decried the way and manner politicians were shopping for injunctions and court orders, stressing that if not checked, the trend could truncate the nation’s democracy.
Dismissing as bizarre and unsustainable a court order that the Independent National Electoral commission, INEC, should only deal with candidates that emerge through primary elections conducted in Edo and Ondo State by the Ali Modu Sheriff faction, Adeyeye said efforts so far by the sacked national chairman and his team to go round securing court orders was absurd.
Continuing, the caretaker committee spokesperson said with the recent judgments, Sheriff was no longer a Chairman of the party and had never even being Chairman of the party.
“Sherif has no legal basis to parade himself as chairman. One of the judgments is that Sherif was never chairman of the party. Then the convention of the party in Port Harcourt sacked Sherif and its team. So the political angle also does not see him as chairman of the party”, he said.
Adeyeye assured that the Ahmed Makarfi led caretaker committee was on course, adding that the governorship candidate of the party recognised by INEC was Pastor Ize Iyamu.
“We already have a candidate for the Edo state election. He is Pastor Ize Iyamu. INEC was not in Sheriffs elections. Pastor Iyamu has completed his form with INEC. I am saying we have a candidate in Edo and will have in Ondo state. Sherif is being used. Sherif and co are agents of APC. The candidates of Sherif participated in our primaries and came second, how did they come with their delegates?” he queried.
Adeyeye said the style of using court to want to force executives on political parties should be discouraged, warning that if not checked, it would get to a time when courts will declare somebody who did not participate in an election as the winner.
“When has it become the fashion for court to choose executives for the party? Sherif keeps saying I am chairman by court order. This kind of thing should be discouraged. All the organs of the party don’t want you. When it becomes the order to use court order to install executive then we should say bye bye to democracy.
“A time will come when people who did not contest election will be made governor by the court. It’s like we will surrender all sovereignty to the judiciary to choose for us”, he asserted.
