By CHARLES IWUOHA

The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it “has received, with amazement, the decision of the Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki, which invalidates a legitimate party decision carried out in line with the constitution of the party.”

It said that as a law abiding political party, “we are finalising the paperwork for our appeal, which will be filed to correct the judicial anomaly.”

This is contained in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, and issued on Friday in Abuja. PDP said that “in the meantime, it is also very important to inform our great party men and women in Ebonyi State and Nigeria in general, that Mr. Onyekachi Nwebonyi, who is purporting to be holding a leadership position in our party, is not a member of the PDP and as such cannot hold or claim to be holding any position whatsoever in our party.”

“If the dissolution was said to be wrong, the withdrawal/cancellation of his membership due to anti-party activities did not form part of that judgment.

“Therefore, we urge our members in Ebonyi and the public to totally disregard Nwebonyi and his Dave Umahi-sponsored thugs claiming to be members of the PDP,” the party said.

PDP, according to the statement, “firmly stands on decision of the National Executive Committee (NEC) in the appointment of the Fred Udeogu-led Caretaker Committee for Ebonyi State, which is a legitimate action made pursuant to the constitution of our party, and nothing has changed.

“We are conscious of several decisions of both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, that a Court cannot dictate how a political party performs its internal activities as long as it is done in accordance with the party’s constitution.

“We therefore charge our members in Ebonyi State to remain united and continue to work with the Fred Udeogu-led Caretaker Committee while resisting the activities of external forces who seek to destabilize our party in Ebonyi State.”

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