SAN FRANCISCO, October 18, (THEWILL) – Members of the Abubakar Baraje-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been stopped from parading themselves as the national officers of the party.
A Federal High Court in Abuja which stopped the members of the faction, also declared the Bamanga Tukur faction of the PDP as the one recognised by law.
Presiding judge, Justice Elvis Chukwu , therefore ordered the Baraje faction to stop interfering in the affairs of the party.
The Tukur faction had approached the court for an order restraining the Baraje group from parading itself as the ruling party.
The aggrieved faction under Baraje , however, argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter as it was based on the internal affairs of the party. It also said Tukur and other plaintiffs did not follow the right channel in filing the suit.
But in his ruling on the suit, Justice Chukwu held that the plaintiffs had presented before the court documentary evidence showing that their claims and reliefs sought should be granted.
The court also held that the facts were not contentious and that there were sufficient materials placed before the court, which did not make it compulsory for the plaintiffs to come by a writ of summon.
He noted that all the evidence brought by the plaintiffs was unequivocal and led credence to their case.
“The suit before the court is properly constituted; I cannot deny the plaintiffs of their rights because of alleged non compliance. It is obvious that the plaintiffs have proved that they are entitled to all the reliefs sought.
“By the provisions of Sections 222 and 223 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, Section 80, Electoral Act, 2011, Section 49 of the PDP Constitution, 2012, 1st to 5thdefendants are not entitled to nullify the results of the election of the PDP special convention which produced the plaintiffs.
“The 2nd to 5th defendants are not entitled to be officers of the party having not participated in the election which took place during the special convention of the party where the plaintiffs emerged,” Justice Chukwu stated.
Warning the Baraje faction not to interfere with the duties of the Tukur-led executive committee,
the judge also stopped the faction from opening and or operating parallel national, state, Local Government and ward secretariats of the PDP.
The counsel to the Baraje faction, Ahmed RajI, SAN and Robert Clarke, SAN, had brought a preliminary objection, challenging the competence of the court to entertain the suit.
They argued that issues before the court were internal affairs of the party thus the court did not have jurisdiction to entertain the case.
They also argued that non-juristic persons were made parties and to that effect, the suit before the court was improper and incompetent.
While praying the court to strike out the entire suit brought by the plaintiffs, Raji argued that the process filed by the plaintiffs was irregular and had the tendency of over burden the court.
He noted that the facts presented by the plaintiffs did not support any of the reliefs sought by them.
He further argued that the proper delegates to the convention were the ones who had their election at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja , saying the authentic delegates were not allowed access to the Eagle Square and therefore anyone who emerged from the Eagle square convention could not have been dully elected.
He therefore urged the court not to dabble into the matter since it was a domestic one.
In his submission, Clarke concurred with Raji’s submissions, adding however that the plaintiffs had departed from the issues they formulated and that going by a Supreme Court judgement in a plethora of cases, such suit should be dismissed.
Responding, counsel to Tukur’s faction, Tochukwu Onwugbuifo, SAN, argued that the plaintiffs were in court seeking the interpretation of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), the Electoral Act and the PDP constitution as regards some issues raised.
He submitted that Section 251 of the Constitution had provided that the Federal High Court had the jurisdiction to hear any matter on any issue where the Federal Government and its agencies were parties.
He added that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as a party to the suit, had vested jurisdiction on the court to entertain the matter.
Arguing his originating summons, Onwugbuifo submitted that no member of the Baraje faction was duly elected at the mini convention of the party held at Eagle Square in Abuja.
He added that going by the constitution of the PDP, the legal and authentic convention with the accredited delegates was held at the Eagle Square where the national officers of the party were elected.
He also stressed that the legal convention took place at the Eagle Square and not at the Yar’Adua Centre.
