A federal high court in Abuja has restrained the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from replacing Umar Damagum as the acting chairman.

The suit, marked FCH/ABJ/CS/579/2024, was filed by Umar El-Gash Maina and Zanna Mustapha Gaddama on May 2.

The respondents in the suit are the PDP, the national working committee (NWC), the national executive committee (NEC), the PDP board of trustees (BoT), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Delivering a ruling on the motion ex parte on May 3, Peter Lifu, the presiding judge, made an interim order restraining the respondents from nominating anybody to replace Damagum as acting national chairman of the PDP, pending the determination of the motion on notice.

The defendants/respondents are hereby restrained in the interim from appointing, selecting, or nominating any person to replace Amb. Umar Illiya Damagum as national chairman or acting national chairman of the 1st defendant/respondent pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filed, which is herein fixed against the 14th of May, 2024,” the judge ruled.

“The defendants/respondents, by themselves, agents, privies, or by any proxy, are hereby in the interim restrained from, according to recognition, any person other than Amb. Umar Illiya Damagum as acting national chairman of the 1st defendants/respondents or giving effect to or acting upon any document purporting to be signed by the national chairman or acting national chairman of the 1st defendant without the name and signature of Amb. Umar Illiya Damagum pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filed in court in the instant suit.

“The applicants are herein ordered to enter into a fresh undertaking to pay damages to the respondents (to be assessed by the court) if, at the end of the day, it is discovered that this order ought not to have been granted or that the honourable court was misled into granting the same.”

The court adjourned the case to May 14 for a hearing of the motion on notice.

Damagum became acting chairman of the PDP following the suspension of Iyorchia Ayu in March 2023.

Before the NEC meeting in April, PDP members loyal to Atiku Abubakar, the former vice-president, had moved against Damagum over allegations that he was working for Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT).

Those demanding Damagum’s resignation also argued that there was a need for someone from the north-central to take over and complete Ayu’s tenure.

A former Minister of Communication Adebayo Shittu claims that there were manipulations and fraudulent approvals under the immediate past government of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.

Shittu served as a minister under the Buhari government but believed many persons close to the former Nigerian president manipulated things to their favour, plunging the country’s economy into a downward slide.

“Let me tell you, there were a lot of manipulations and we even heard that a lot of the so-called approvals did not emanate from President Buhari,” he said on Tuesday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily while responding to comments that the previous government was printing money to run the economy.

“There were a lot of manipulations and fraudulent approvals which did not emanate from the President.”

“I am telling you confidently that a lot of it did not get his attention,” he insisted. “There were a lot of people around the President who exploited their relationship with the President and conspired with the then-CBN governor.

Approvals Without Signatures

Shittu’s claims corroborated that of presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale who said many approvals for releasing funds within the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under Godwin Emefiele did not have Buhari’s signature.

“President Bola Tinubu has come out several times in fairness to him (Buhari), to say, ‘Look, this is what happened under the previous administration’. I think we have to acknowledge the fact that he (Tinubu) understands more than anyone that many of the approvals within the CBN that brought us to this point have no signature to President Muhammadu Buhari and had no knowledge of President Muhammadu Buhari,” Ngelale said.

Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Emefiele as the CBN governor. However upon assumption of office in 2015, Buhari retained him as the apex bank boss.

He, was, however, removed in June and is being tried for charges bordering on corruption.

Shittu therefore wants Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to wade into the matter and “probe properly”.

“I hope the EFCC will probe properly as to how these things happen without the President knowing,” Shittu said.

Blessing Agbebaku, speaker of the Edo state house of assembly, says the three lawmakers suspended during plenary on Monday engaged in “nefarious acts”.

On May 6, the speaker announced the suspension of Donald Okogbe (PDP Akoko-Edo II), Bright Iyamu (PDP Orihonmwon south), and Adeh Isibor (PDP Esan north-east I).

Okogbe, one of the suspended lawmakers, is an ally of Philip Shaibu, former deputy governor of Edo. He was the only lawmaker who did not sign the petition that led to Shaibu’s impeachment.

Agbebaku accused the lawmakers of attempts to change the leadership of the house through diabolical and other means.

He added that the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras on the house premises exposed the spiritualist and the lawmakers who hired him.

“They are being influenced to cause chaos in this house by planning to change the leadership of this house. But to God be the glory, they were exposed,” the speaker said.

“They brought in a spiritualist into the Anthony Enahoro complex and dropped fetish items.

“They brought a herbalist into this house of assembly premises to plant some charms in the compound by 1am in the morning without knowing that the CCTV cameras will expose their nocturnal act.”

A rowdy and rancorous session ensued in the house after the speaker announced the suspension of the lawmakers, with the affected legislators accusing Agbebaku of acting “unilaterally”.

As tempers flared amid the pushing and shoving, plenary was abruptly adjourned.