The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday advised the Peoples Democratic Party to suspend campaigning for its governorship candidate in Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo. While The embattled former Central Bank Governor and gubernatorial candidate of the PDP, in the 2010 governorship election in Anambra State, yesterday, approached the Abuja division of the Appeal Court, with a preliminary objection,
seeking to void a subsisting appeal filed against his nomination by four aggrieved gubernatorial aspirants of the party, for the February 6 elections in the state.
The Appeal court said the campaigning would amount to a futile effort in futility as long as the appeal filed by some aggrieved members of the party remained in the court.
Justice Mary Odili, who presided over the session, spoke at the hearing of an application by two PDP governorship aspirants in Anambra State, Mr. Valentine Ozigbo and Mrs. Victoria Nwankwo.
The two aspirants are asking the appellate court to stop the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from parading himself as the party’s governorship candidate.
The applicants’ lawyer, Mr. Abubakar Sani, had asked the court to direct the respondents (Soludo, PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission) not to take further steps in the matter until the appeal was determined.
Responding, Justice Odili said, “The matter is before us. Anyone that does anything, that would be an action in futility.”
Ozigbo and Nwankwo had filed an appeal challenging the judgment of an Abuja High Court, which vacated the order restraining Soludo from parading himself as the party’s governorship candidate for the February 6, 2010 governorship poll in the state.
They are asking the appellate court to set aside the judgment of Justice Danlami Senchi and also remit the case back to the High Court for fresh trial by a new judge.
Pending the time the court would hear the appeal, they have asked the appellate court to issue an interim order restraining the PDP from presenting Soludo as its candidate.
When the matter came up on Tuesday, Justice Odili said the court was ready to hear the application without further delay.
But the court could not go ahead with the application because Soludo’s lawyer, Mr. Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), said he had just filed a preliminary objection and a counter-affidavit on behalf of the candidate against the application of the two aspirants.
Justice Odili told him that the objection and the counter-affidavit were not in the files.
She, however, asked him to furnish the court with the papers instantly which Ikwueto did.
The court then directed the applicants/appellants to file their responses to the objection within 24 hours and further directed that all processes must be filed by Thursday.
Odili said the court would hear the application on Friday.
In the objection, Soludo is asking the court to dismiss the application urging the court to stop the PDP from parading him as the party’s governorship candidate. He is contending that the application is incompetent and that the court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain it.
In their appeal, Ozigbo and Nwankwo had claimed that Senchi erred in law when he ruled that he lacked the jurisdiction to entertain their case.
According to them, a careful consideration of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, the Electoral Act 2006 and the constitution of the party showed that the court indeed had the jurisdiction to entertain the case.
They said,”The learned trial judge failed to advert to Article 17.2 (b) of the 1st Respondent‘s (PDP) constitution which provides that the primaries for its candidate for governorship of a state shall be held at the state congress thereof specially convened for that purpose.”
The appellants further noted that the trial judge did not take cognizance of Article 17.2(g) of the party‘s constitution which prescribed a minimum of 2 years membership of the party in order for a person to be eligible to stand for election into public office.
In the main, the appellants have filed a new application before Justice Senchi asking him to restrain PDP from endorsing the selection of Soludo as its candidate pending the determination of the appeal just filed.
They also asked the court to restrain Soludo from parading himself as the party‘s candidate for the Anambra governorship election pending the determination of the appeal.
Two weeks ago, Justice Senchi vacated the order it issued on October 22 barring Soludo from parading himself as the party‘s candidate for the Anambra State governorship election.
In vacating the order, the trial judge admitted that he granted the restraining order without jurisdiction.
In his ruling, Justice Senchi said his court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit, adding that, “by this ruling today, the motion filed by Soludo to set aside the exparte order that barred him from parading himself as the PDP governorship candidate made by the court on October 23, 2009 has been vacated.”
The judge said the plaintiff could either appeal against his ruling or go back to Anambra High Court, which he said had the jurisdiction to entertain the suit on the alleged violation of a court order made on October 7, 2009 by an Anambra High Court sitting in Aguata which restrained PDP from holding its state congress on the 9th of October as scheduled.
The court upheld the argument of Ikwueto, that Article 17 of PDP‘s constitution and section 85(1) of Electoral Act 2006 that gave power to political party to nominate its candidate was a domestic issue that could not be adjudicated upon by any court.
He relied on the Supreme Court‘s case of Ehinlanwo V Oke and maintained that nomination of a candidate for an election was the exclusive preserve of a political party and that internal dispute resolution mechanism must be exhausted first before invoking the jurisdiction of the court.
He further held held that PDP was bound by the provision of its constitution as it was not the court that drafted the constitution for the party.
He said that the court would however ensure that the party‘s action must be within the sphere of the provision of the constitution of the party.
The court held that the alleged offence of the PDP was perfected on November 9, 2009 while the suit that culminated in the restraining order came after the nomination.
It will be recalled that Justice Senchi had on October 23, 2009 granted an exparte order restraining PDP from perfecting Soludo’s nomination with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the party’s flag bearer in the February 6, 2009 gubernatorial election in Anambra State.
The order was based on an exparte motion dated October 22, 2009 filed by Ozigbo where-in he sought an order restraining PDP from recognising Soludo as its governorship candidate in Anambra state pending the hearing and determination of the substantive motion.
Ozigbo alleged that due process was not followed by the ruling party in the nomination of the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria as its gubernatorial candidate in Anambra state.
Meanwhile The embattled former Central Bank Governor and gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the 2010 governorship election in Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, yesterday, approached the Abuja division of the Appeal Court, with a preliminary objection, seeking to void a subsisting appeal filed against his nomination by four aggrieved gubernatorial aspirants of the party, for the February 6 elections in the state.
The four appellants who were dissatisfied with the decision of trial Justice Danlami Senchi, who on November 15, struck out their suit challenging the legality of the process adopted by the PDP, in choosing Soludo as its candidate for the said election, had gone on appeal, with a view to reversing that Judgment.
They are contending that the Judge erred in law by declining jurisdiction to entertain the matter they said bothered on an alleged breach of both the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act of 2006 and Article 17 of the PDP electoral guidelines.