A Federal High Court in Abuja has suspended the scheduled
national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, earlier slated for
August 17. Justice Okon Abang said he gave the ruling to serve as a “judicial
deterrent” for what he described as the “excesses of parties”.
Mr. Abang was expected to rule on an application filed by a
faction of the party led by a former Kaduna State governor, Ahmed Makarfi, and
a former senator, Ben Obi. He had adjourned Monday’s hearing after granting the
application by the faction.
The judge however took another decision after a lawyer
representing another faction of the party led by Ali-Modu Sheriff, informed him
that Mr. Obi had approached the Port Harcourt division of the Federal High
Court to obtain an interim injunction.
The injunction compelled the Independent National Electoral
Commission and security agencies to take part in the convention. The judge said
the act deserved a “judicial response”. The
plaintiff filed a motion on July 20, being an order restraining INEC from
monitoring the national convention of PDP August 17. The court had adjourned
the application to allow Makarfi and six others to join till August 15.
“Now that the applicants have been joined as parties.
Opportunities should be given to the parties to say whether they are opposed to
the application or not. The court was ready to adjourn to allow the newly
joined parties to prepare their arguments.
“What is shocking is that Senator Ben Obi obtained an order
on August 9 from the PH division for INEC and the security officers to provide
security for the party in the convention. The action of Senator Ben Obi is
grossly unacceptable. This is unfortunate and unfair,” said Mr. Abang.
If we are to uphold the rule of democracy, nobody is above the law,” he said. “An order is hereby made in the interim to suspend the August 17 convention pending the determination of the application filed on July 20,” he sai
No comments:
Post a Comment