Justice Valentine Ashi of a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja High Court has ordered the embattled former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State, Col. Sam Inokoba (retd.), to stop parading himself in that capacity pending the determination of the motion of notice which is in court.

Inokoba was suspended by the Bayelsa State Working Committee (SWC) of the PDP over allegations of incompetence and ineptitude, including acts of financial impropriety in the diversion of N70 million donated to the party by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, for the 2015 Bayelsa Presidential Rally. He was said to have pocketed N40 million while giving only N30 million to the PDP secretariat in Bayelsa State.

He, however, described his suspension as a ruse claiming that only the PDP National Working Committee and its chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, could suspend him.

Seven members of the Bayelsa SWC of the PDP consequently went to court, seeking, among other reliefs, an order of interim injunction restraining Inokoba, his agents, privies, or appointees from either parading himself as Bayelsa State PDP chairman, pending the determination of the motion on notice now pending before the court.

The litigants are Cleopas Moses, Hon. Godspower Kuku, Richard Perekeme, Faith Opene, Alfred I. Atiegha, Numomikari Walter and Ikpi Patterson, who sued for themselves and on behalf of Bayelsa SWC of the PDP.

PDP, its National Chairman (Adamu Muazu) and Inokoba were joined as first, second and third defendants in the suit.

Judgment for the interim order was fixed for March 23 but was adjourned till April 20 because counsel for the defendants were not in court.

On April 20, the case was again adjourned till (Monday) May 11 because the court could not sit.

In his judgment on the definite hearing delivered yesterday but obtained today by judiciary correspondents, Justice Ashi ordered that the “interim order of injunction earlier granted on March 23 is hereby declared to subsist and shall remain in force as binding on the defendants pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”

Major stakeholders in Bayelsa State chapter of PDP had insisted that the state Chairman of the party, Col. Sam Inokoba (retd), must be sacked.

The verdict has reportedly unsettled the camp of First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, of which Inokoba is a pointsman.

•Photo shows Inokoba.

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