The Supreme Court of Nigeria has sacked the controversial Ali Modu Sheriff as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party and reinstated his bitter rival, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, who had been earlier removed by the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal, as the National Caretaker Committee.
A five-man panel of the country’s apex court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen,CJN, unanimously reversed the decision of the lower court.
Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, who read the lead judgement, held that contrary to the majority judgment of the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal, the suit filed by Makarfi faction before the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt was not an abuse of court.
The court said that National Convention of the PDP held on May 21, 2016, rightly and constitutionally removed Sheriff.
According to the supreme Court, the convention acted rightly and not in breach of any aspect of the PDP’s constitution by setting up the Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee.
While Ahmed Makarfi was present in court with a large number of loyalists, including Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, Sheriff was strangely absent from court.
Today’s decision brings to an end a protracted battle between Sheriff’s faction and that of Makrafi for the control of the opposition party. It was one that threw the party into crisis and threatened to destroy Nigeria’s biggest party that once boasted it would rule forever.
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