…as Apex Court upholds nullification of Ibadan convention
The Supreme Court has upheld the earlier invalidation by the Court of Appeal of the Convention organized by the Tanimu Turaki-led faction of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ibadan, Oyo state last November.
In a split decision of three justices to two, the Apex Court, in its lead judgement prepared and read by Justice Stephen Adah, condemned, in strong terms, the disobedience of court orders by the Turaki camp.
The verdict is on the appeal challenging the decision of the Appeal Court which affirmed that former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, was unlawfully excluded from the chairmanship race.
The five-member Apex Court panel expressed displeasure with the Turaki group for disobeying the order of the trial court, including the instruction to halt the planned Ibadan convention until forms are sold to all those interested in running for executive positions.
The Apex Court further stressed that the Ibadan Convention went ahead in defiance of a subsisting court order, an action deemed as ‘condemnable’.
Justices Mohammed Garba and Justice Chidioma Nwosu-Iheme are the others for the majority decisions, while Justices Haruna Tsammani and Abubakar Sadiq Umar were in the minority.
Reacting to the Apex Court judgement, Spokesperson of the ‘defeated’ factional PDP; Comrade Ini Ememobong in a press statement, described it as “…a dangerous bend”.
Ini noted that with the effect of the judgement, the former Nigerian ruling party had become a party without a defined leadership.
The statement read “Today, the Supreme Court of Nigeria, through a five-man panel presided over by Justice Mohammed Garba, in a split decision (3–2), upheld the judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court, wherein the convention held in Ibadan was nullified.
“The three Justices (Chioma Nwosu-Iheme, Stephen Adah, and Garba) hinged their judgments on the disrespect of a valid, subsisting judgment of the Federal High Court and therefore held that, being in contempt, the appellants cannot be accommodated in the apex court, thereby dismissing the appeal.
“However, the minority judgments by Justices Haruna Tsammani and Abubakar Umar held that the two appeals emanate from matters which are internal affairs of the PDP and are therefore non-justiciable. The case at the FHC was not challenging any act or decision of any federal government agency but the leadership contest of the party, and therefore not justiciable.
“Furthermore, they held that it is not the duty of the court to fish out matters to execute the case for the respondent, because the majority judgment undertook the duty of raising matters suo motu without calling on the parties to address them. This is against the position of the apex court, wherein parties must be given the opportunity to address the court on matters raised suo motu.
With this split judgment, which also upheld the Court of Appeal’s suspension of Ajibade, SAN, Anyanwu, and others, this effectively leaves the PDP as a party without a defined leadership.
“To this end, we are certain that the existing organs of the party will take the necessary steps to salvage the party and confer leadership on it going forward.
This leads the vehicle of our party towards a dangerous bend, which, if not carefully navigated, may not only affect the party but also multi-party democracy in our country”.
