Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George has said it is the Supreme Court that can settle the crisis in the opposition party. At a news conference in Lagos yesterday, George noted that the party was between survival and extinction. He said: “We must make a stand to confront the many maladies now confronting our party. We must be counted to be on the righteous and the redeeming side of history. We must take the hard and the most enduring choice. We have derailed in a mournful way from the guidance, the nuance and the formative directions of our founding fathers. We have upturned and distort the normal building blocks and the structures of an orderly organisation.
“The issue at stake now is: who is the rightful, legitimate and validly entrusted entity that the constitution of our party recognises to lead the party presently? Ordinarily, there should not be a dispute on this matter if we are all correctly attuned to the constitutional guidance and the stipulations that are etched in our collective norms, in our practices and traditions. Our acting – chairman Senator, Sheriff came out to contest for the chairmanship position. He collected the nomination form, paid for the form, filled the form and submitted it to the appropriate election committee.
“According to our electoral guidelines, Sheriff as an acting chairman was deemed to have vacated his seat as soon as he submitted himself for the nomination process at least seven days before the convention. Had he been a substantive chairman, the guidelines stipulate 30 clear days for him to leave the position before the convention. It would have been virtually unfair, indecent, crude and primitive for an incumbent chairman or any office holder for that matter who wishes to contest for an office to now sit in arbitrating supervision over the process of his own election! We can be sure of what the outcome of such illegitimate process would be.
“The Appeal Court in Port Harcourt in a split decision has muddled the issue by ruling in favour of Sheriff. There is indeed a lot about this ruling which ridicules rationality, which distorts and negates the norms and the fundamental articles of voluntary association. The judges in their wisdom appear to be dictating, remolding and recasting the spirit, the tenets and the foundational principles that are the very structural pivot of party identity. The judiciary is a very powerful tool in the stability and in the endurance of a democracy. It is the neutral arbiter that ensures the faithful interpretation of laws, resolved and established on principled purity that compels fairness, impartiality and strict adherence to the principles of equity.”
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