By Tony Edike
ENUGU—A fresh move by Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State and his supporters to remove Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo as  National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP through an order of Enugu State High Court failed yesterday as the court turned down their request to declare Nwodo unfit to lead the party.

The court also refused to grant the ex-parte application which sought an order restraining members of the newly elected State Executive Committee of PDP in the state, led by Hon. Okey Ogbonna, from functioning in its present capacity and to declare the congresses that produced the new executive a nullity.

Nwodo camp said yesterday that the new attempt by Chime to remove the party’s national chairman, even when the National Working Committee had reportedly initiated moves to harmonize the two warring camps, had further exposed the hidden agenda of the governor and his supporters who had declared their support for the harmonization process.

In an ex-parte application filed by Tony Ani on behalf of 15 plaintiffs from the governor’s camp before an Enugu High Court presided over by Justice Benedict Agbata, the applicants sought the court’s injunction to restrain the defendants, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo and the PDP from tampering with the Vita Abba-led executive of the party, which had since been dissolved by the party’s national leadership.

The applicants specifically asked the court to restrain Nwodo from parading himself as PDP national chairman on the ground that he was not fit to occupy the top party position while praying that the ward, local government and state congresses of the party held by Nwodo group on December 28, 29 and 30 respectively be declared null and void.

But when the application was formally moved before the court by the applicants’ counsel, Mr. Tony Ani, yesterday, Justice Agbata wasted no time in rejecting all the prayers as he sternly warned that he would not tolerate any ex-parte application on such a sensitive matter, more so when the defendants were not put on notice.

Justice Agbata, who adjourned the matter to January 14 to enable the applicants serve the defendants through substituted means, recalled that such an ex-parte application had led to the sack of a judge of the state high court in the past and would, therefore, not tolerate such in his court.

Speaking with reporters after the court session yesterday, the newly elected State Chairman of PDP, Hon. Okey Ogbonna, said fresh unsuccessful move by Governor Chime and his supporters to unseat Nwodo as the party’s national chairman had further exposed the hidden agenda of the governor’s camp.

He said the move had shown that the governor ‘s group was not interested in the progress of the party which, according to him, had been well positioned to face the challenges of the coming elections.

Ogbonna insisted that the party’s congresses held at various levels in which fresh executive committees had been elected at all levels, remained the solution to the party’s crisis in the state, adding that Nwodo’s group was not interested in the purported moves by the party’s national leadership to harmonize the two groups.

“I was in court and heard the ruling of the court rejecting the application by the governor’s group to remove the national chairman.  You can see how desperate these people are.  Has this not clearly shown that the governor and his supporters are deceiving President Goodluck Jonathan and the party on their readiness to embrace the so-called harmonization? ”

“How can they be talking of harmonization and they went behind trying to use the court to remove Nwodo from office and went further to seek an injunction to restrain the new party executive which emerged from a validly conducted congresses. In the first place, we have no confidence in the harmonization effort and we are not a party to it because any move by anybody to tamper with the new executive of the party in the state amounts to illegality,” Ogbonna said.

Meanwhile, the governor and his supporters reportedly left Enugu for Abuja yesterday for the harmonization meeting summoned by the PDP National Working Committee but members of the Nwodo’s faction said they would not attend the meeting describing the harmonization effort as belated.