An Ekiti State High Court in Ado Ekiti has nullified the appointment of a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state.
Justice Olusegun Ogunyemi reinstated the State Working Committee of the party led by Alaba Agboola.
The PDP National Working Committee had in June, this year, dissolved the party’s executives in Ekiti State and constituted a caretaker committee under the chairmanship of Sadiq Obanoye.
Dissatisfied with the dissolution, the Agboola-led SWC filed a suit marked HAD/90/2023 against the PDP acting National Chairman, Umar Damagun, and two others.
In his judgment on Tuesday, Justice Ogunyemi declared the dissolution of the Ekiti State Executive Committee of the party null and void and sacked the caretaker committee appointed 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 pursuant to the directives or instruction of the 1st and 2nd defendants from recognising or further recognising the 3rd 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 PDP.”
The court also granted an order of perpetual injunction “restraining Obanoye (3rd 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 the 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,” Agboola said.
