TVC E. Ali Modu Sheriff, the embattled chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reacted to the judgment of a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt which validated his party May 21 National Convention.
The court had on Monday, July 4, ruled in favour of the Senator Ahmed Makarfi section, and endorsed the removal of Sheriff as PDP chairman. But according to Sheriff, he remains in charge until the Court of Appeal gives its verdict on who should be the PDP national chairman, NAN reports.
However, Sheriff told newsmen that he had instructed his lawyers to appeal the Port Harcourt judgement and to seek a stay-of- execution of the judgment.
He said: “The court where the judge gave judgement in Abuja last week and the Federal High Court in Lagos and today’s court in Port Harcourt are all courts of the same competent jurisdiction.
“Therefore, the orders that we have in Abuja is still subsisting. What it means is that unless a Court of Appeal decides otherwise, I still remain the national chairman of the PDP.
“Courts that are of the same jurisdiction cannot overrule another court unless it is Court of Appeal. We disagree with today’s judgement completely.
“We have asked our lawyers immediately to file an appeal and also ask the same court for stay of execution, because there were three orders before this, which are of the same coordinate jurisdiction.
“Unless and until Court of Appeal, which is a higher court, makes a pronouncement contrary to what we have, I still remain the chairman.”
In a swift reaction, Ahmed Makarfi, Chairman of the PDP National Caretaker Committee, called on Sheriff and his followers to accept the judgement and join the committee in moving the party forward. He said:
“I am indeed happy with the judgement on the one hand but also sad that it had to come to this. For me, there should be no winner or loser in this matter.
“I am still calling on Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff and his followers to join us so that we accommodate one another and indeed all other groups in a just, fair and equitable manner.”
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