Embattled Imo State PDP Chairman, Hon. Austine Nwachukwu, has dismissed his reported expulsion from the party, declaring that the convention at which the decision was announced “never legally took place” and therefore lacked any authority to remove him.
Nwachukwu argued that two subsisting Federal High Court orders had barred the PDP from conducting any national convention until all outstanding state congresses were concluded, rendering the entire exercise unlawful from the outset.
Speaking in an exclusive telephone interview with Sunday Vanguard, the prominent member of the Wike-aligned faction said he was shocked that journalists would treat the convention as legitimate despite clear judicial restrictions.
He questioned: “You, as a journalist, are you not aware of the several court judgements that restrained them from holding any convention?”
To him, the attempt to remove him was both hollow and laughable because the body that supposedly expelled him, in his view, had no legal recognition.
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“Can a non-existent body expel a lawful body? It’s not possible. You people know the truth. You publish only the truth, don’t you?” he queried, urging reporters to rely on verifiable facts.
Nwachukwu repeatedly returned to the point that the PDP had not complied with the judicial directives that required the party to fix its state structures before any national gathering could be convened.
“Two Federal High Court judgements say don’t do convention. Don’t do convention. Go and repair your house. Do all the congresses in all the states that have not done. Then you can do convention,” he explained.
He dismissed the gathering from which he was reportedly expelled as nothing more than a hired crowd assembled for show, not a legitimate political exercise.
“Quote me: that thing is a jamboree. Those people only went there to do owambe. That’s an owambe convention. It is not a convention at all — it’s an owambe party,” he declared.
Asked whether he planned to challenge the purported expulsion in court, Nwachukwu waved off the idea, arguing that it would be senseless to dignify an illegal action with litigation.
“I would be stupid to tell you I’m going to court when two Federal High Court judgements clearly said they should not hold any convention,” he said.
He also criticised the organisers for relying on a State High Court ex parte order to justify an action already barred by Federal High Court directives.
“A State High Court cannot question a Federal High Court. Only the Court of Appeal can do that,” he stressed.
Throughout the interview, his irritation with the opposing faction was unmistakable, accusing them of deliberately violating court orders and internal party rules.
For Nwachukwu, the issue is straightforward: he stands on the side of the law and refuses to recognise decisions issued by what he insists was an unlawful assembly.
