Court stops PDP congress

A Federal High Court in Abuja has restrained the Peoples Democratic Party in Adamawa State from conducting its state congress on Saturday.
Dr. Umar Ardo, the spokesman of some aggrieved members and governorship aspirant of the party, made this known to newsmen on Friday in Yola, Adamawa State.
Ardo said they went to court and had resolved to boycott the congress in protest of the conduct of last week’s ward and local government congresses by the state Caretaker Committee.
He claimed that the caretaker committee did not conduct the congresses in line with the party’s constitution.
According to him, they had complaint to the Congress Appeal Committee on the shoddy way the congresses were conducted in 10 local government areas.
He said: “Those responsible for doing the congress just went into their rooms and wrote what they wanted to write.
“We petitioned the congress appeal committee and the committee did not do justice to it.
“The only thing they did was to call for harmonisation in Sheleng Local Government and then cancelled that of Demsa and Michika local governments, where the impunity was too glaring.
“So we are left with no option than to approach the court and we got this court order and served on them.”
Also speaking, the only PDP lawmaker in the state House of Assembly, Lusambani Dilli, who is representing Demsa Constituency, said the party needed to do the right thing in Adamawa State by addressing the lopsided congresses.
Dilli said: “Demsa my local government was shortchanged.
“The party needs to listen to us.
“Whether one likes it or not, we have Bobboi and Joel (former state chairmen) groups in Adamawa and there should have been a reconciliation meeting of the groups before the congresses.
“When we held the North East reconciliation meeting in Yola, I raised the need for similar meeting for Adamawa State, but it was not conducted by the caretaker committee.
“This, I believe is the major reason for the problem we are having now.”
Reacting to the development, the Secretary of the Caretaker Committee, Chief Gebon Kataps, denied the allegations.
Kataps said the committee had been warned of such attempt by some people to always frustrate the party in Adamawa State.
He assured that the November 4 congress would go ahead as the committee did not get any court injunction nor was it communicated to from the party headquarters of such injunction.
He said: “We just received the congress officials from Abuja.
“Sensitive materials for the state congress had arrived and accreditation will commence by 8am and election by 10am.”
Adamawa State is one of the seven states where PDP dissolved its State Executive Committees and appointed caretaker committees to conduct fresh congresses at all levels.