Court bars Ayu from parading self as PDP chairman

The woes of Senator Iyorchia Ayu were compounded on Monday as a Benue State High Court sitting in Makurdi issued an interim injunction restraining him from parading himself as National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Recall that the Executive Committee of the PDP in Igyorov Ward of Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State had suspended Ayu with immediate effect.

In a resolution read by its secretary, Vanger Dooyum, the ward excos said Ayu’s anti-party activities – alongside his allies –contributed to the PDP’s loss in his ward and local government in the March 18 governorship election in the state.

He was also accused of not paying his annual dues as stipulated in the party’s constitution.

In a statement in Abuja on Monday, Ayu rejected his suspension via the resolution signed by 12 out of the 17 exco members.

In the statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Simon Imobo-Tswam, the PDP national chairman described the purported suspension as the “handiwork of some desperate ignorant gamblers who lack basic understanding of the PDP Constitution”.

However, Justice W.I. Kpochi on Monday issued an interim order restraining Ayu from parading himself as the PDP national chairman.

The judge gave the order in suit No. MHC/85/2023 filed by Terhide Utaan with Ayu and the PDP as defendants.

The application was supported by a 15-paragraph affidavit to which was annexed three exhibits marked as exhibits A1, A2 and B, which were the applicant’s membership card of the second defendant (PDP), receipts for payment of dues, and a vote of no confidence passed on the 1st defendant (Ayu) by the Igyorov Council Ward of the 2nd defendant in Gboko Local Government, Benue State.

The court statement said, “Upon hearing Mr. M. T. Assoh of Learned Counsel ably move the application and upon a dispassionate consideration of the facts placed before me in the pool of the affidavit evidence, and again, upon the consideration of the issues distilled in the written address by M. T. Assoh of Learned Counsel, it is my candid view that this is a proper case to grant the interim injunction as craved.

“Consequently, this application is hereby granted in terms of the reliefs captured in the motion papers as herein before reproduced. It is so ordered.”

Justice Kpochi adjourned the case until April 17 for further hearing.