SAN FRANCISCO, December 05, (THEWILL) – The Colonel Augustine Akobundo – led caretaker/ad-hoc committee established by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State has been sacked.
The committee was set up to run the party’s affairs in the state pending the 2015 general elections.
But a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja which sacked the committee Friday also ordered the Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC) not to accept the list of delegates or nominated candidates that emanated from the caretaker committee.
Presiding judge of the court, Justice Evoh Chukwu, said in his ruling that the PDP set up the committee in violation of his court’s order that parties to a suit over the party’s leadership should maintain the status quo pending the determination of the suit.
He maintained that the setting up of the caretaker committee during the pendency of the suit and the subsistence of his court’s order was not only an affront to the court’s dignity and integrity, but a bold display of impunity.
Justice Chukwu was ruling on a suit marked; FHC/ABJ/CS/854/2014 filed by two chieftains of the PDP in Anambra State – Ejike Oguebego and Chucks Okoye.
Listed as defendants in the suit was the PDP and INEC .
Refusing the preliminary objection by the defendants, Justice Chukwu held that by its action, the 1st defendant (PDP) “has shown total disrespect to this court and this must not be allowed to stand to avoid creating a dangerous precedence.
“For the sanctity of the Judiciary, this brazen display of impunity or total disregard to the court must be stopped, at least, to serve as a deterrent to others.”
“The law is that a party in disobedience to a court order should not come before the same court to seek any remedy. So, rather than dismiss the suit as an abuse of court’s process, the defences of the defendants, particularly the 1stdefendant, must fail as it amounts to another abysmal display of contempt of court.
“They flouted this court’s order and still want a remedy from this court. The defendant, who is in contempt of court, cannot be seen to use the same court to advance its impunity,” the presiding judge said.
While acknowledging the powers of the PDP, under the law, to appoint caretaker or ad-hoc committee for any of its state branches, he however argued that “such powers must not be exercised arbitrarily, but judiciously and show some respect to the judicial institution.”
According to him, “ This they (PDP and its leadership) failed to do. The law is sacrosanct.”
“If the 1st defendant had waited for the determination of this suit, anything they could have done would not be queried by this court or any other court. But since they want self-help, the court cannot allow it.”
Maintaining that the plaintiff’s case succeeded , having considered arguments by both sides, Justice Chukwu declared among others, that “the caretaker or ad-hoc committee set up by the 1st defendant, during the subsistence and pendency of this suit is illegal, null and void.””
He also ordered “that any delegates’ list or nominated candidates that emanated from the congresses and primaries conducted by the caretaker or ah-hoc committee set up by the 1stdefendant, during the pendency and subsistence of this suit is illegal, invalid, unconstitutional, an abuse of court’s process, null and void and cannot be used for any purpose.”
“Also, the 1st defendant, its agents and privies were restrained from forwarding, submitting, forwarding to the 2nddefendant (INEC) any delegates’ list or nominated candidates that may emerge from the congresses or primaries conducted by the caretaker or ad-hoc committee set up by the 1stdefendant.”
Earlier, the court had dismissed a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/827/2014 filed by another chieftain of the party, Celestine Ofuegbunam , on the ground that it amounted to an academic exercise, hypothetical and lacked foundation.
Ofuegbunam had argued that it was the law that only the national executive committee of the PDP that can conduct a valid primaries and that it was only the list of delegates and candidates produced from such primaries that INEC could act on, but not that produced by the party’s state’s chapter.
Justice Chukwu, who dismissed the case, observed that the plaintiff failed to exhibit the list of candidates and delegates produced from the primaries conducted in Anambra state by the PDP’s national Executive Committee, and that he also failed to show that he was a member of the Executive Committee.
