By Tony edike
A political activist and former governorship aspirant in Anambra State, Chief Ifeanyi Okonkwo, has described the  removal of Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo as PDP national chairman as illegal.

Okonkwo said he would proceed to court to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from dealing with the party’s acting Chairman, Haliru Bello, as his emergence was unconstitutional.

Okonkwo, who briefed reporters in Enugu yesterday, said considering the events that led to Nwodo’s exit from office, only the ousted national chairman could submit list of PDP candidates to INEC because the whole process that produced the acting chairman was subjudice and, therefore, illegal.

His words: “The whole thing is a none event because these are matters that are laughable. First of all, there was a judicial proceeding in Enugu between certain elements as parties; and one of the parties in the dispute is Nwodo; and PDP is a party in the subsisting case in Enugu instituted by an aggrieved party member.”

“That court assumed jurisdiction, made an order, rightly or wrongly, affecting the right and office of one of the parties who is a defendant in the action, that person was Okwesilieze Nwodo; PDP by deciding to publicize that they were calling their National Executive Committee, NEC meeting to discuss the subject matter of a pending suit is subjudice ab-initio.

“Therefore the meeting called upon which certain decisions were taking was a nullity in the first place; you cannot predicate that meeting as basis of removing an officer that has been recognized by INEC.

“The question now is, can PDP pretend that they are punishing Nwodo for coming to the arena when there was a subsisting order? The answer is no, they are not a court of law; if somebody is in contempt of a court order, it is the court upon the complaint of any of the parties, not necessarily the person who procured the order, to tell the court that during the pendency of this order, X and Y violated the order of court; and the court will use its coercive powers to punish that person to supervise that nobody will deal with the subject matter of a pending suit.

Okonkwo contended that PDP as a body known to law could not decide to arrest a proceeding in the court of law by deciding to now deal with the subject matter of litigation and remove Nwodo from office; “so the position of the law is, that the NEC meeting itself was sub-judice and therefore not recognized in law. So Nwodo has not been removed.

“Don’t tell me that Nwodo resigned; Nwodo did not resign because the resignation was based on what we call in law that somebody has decided to use duress; the meeting itself where he tendered the resignation was a meeting called by bunch of people who have no respect for rule of law; it was a meeting that was called sub-judice of a situation in a court of law; even the judge that gave the order is before a disciplinary of a higher authority; the matter is still alive and well in Enugu, so PDP cannot by any way of masquerading around tell anybody that the NEC meeting would stand, it will not stand it’s a matter that is in the realm of public law now; it’s no longer the right of Nwodo, I intend to go to court to challenge them.”

Okonkwo noted that the issue now is, “who will submit papers to INEC? Is it the acting chairman, the answer is no; because that acting chairman was procured from an illegal process; these are matters the court will now have to look at and they have to be litigated; they cannot foist on us illegal candidates.

“We are Nigerians, this is a party that is supported with our money so don’t tell me about the issue of locus stand, this is a matter in public law; PDP has been collecting subventions from the government and we cannot wait and see them destroy Nigeria and the rule of law; I intend to go to court.”