The Federal High Court in Abuja has granted a temporary restraining order, prohibiting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from appointing or nominating a replacement for Umar Damagum as its Acting National Chairman.
This order will remain in effect until the court delivers a judgment on a lawsuit filed by two senior party members, Senator Umar Maina and Alhaji Zanna Gaddama.
The court’s decision, delivered by Justice Peter Lifu, was based on an urgent application submitted by the plaintiffs. The lawsuit, filed as FHC/ABJ/CS/579/2024, names the PDP, its National Working Committee, National Executive Committee, Board of Trustees, and the Independent National Electoral Commission as defendants.
The court’s order effectively puts a hold on any attempts to replace Damagum until the matter is resolved.
The court said, “The defendants/respondents are hereby restrained in the interim, from appointing, selecting, nominating any person to replace Ambassador Umar Damagum as National Chairman or Acting National Chairman of the 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 defendants/respondents by themselves, agents, privies or by any proxy, are hereby in the interim, restrained from according recognition to any person other than Ambassador 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 Ambassador 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 some.
“The return date is herein fixed against the 14th day of May 2024, for the hearing of the Motion on Notice dated and filed on the 2nd of May, 2024,” the court added in the ex-parte order that was made on May 3 but obtained by newsmen on Wednesday.
Damagum has survived several attempts to remove him from office.