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Embattled National Chairman of the All Peoples Congress, APC, yesterday alleged that a serving minister and some governors are behind his travails, as a Federal High Court sitting in Kano State, yesterday, set aside the ruling of an FCT high court suspending him as the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. He, however, declined to name the minister and governors.
The order came as the embattled APC leader fought his traducers gamely to retain his seat. He filed four grounds of appeal to set aside his suspension. According to Oshiomhole, who will resume his duties today, the FCT high court does not have the jurisdiction to suspend him, and that his tenure will be determined by God, not man. However, there are banana peels ahead of him as the National Vice-Chairman, North-East, of the party, Comrade Mustapha Salihu, one of those spear-heading the move to oust Oshiomhole, picked holes in the Kano high court order, saying the party would obey Wednesday’s order suspending Oshiomhole. Kano court sets aside suspension order While setting aside Oshiomhole’s suspension, presiding judge of the Federal High Court sitting in Kano, Justice Lewis Alagoa, ordered that the status quo ante bellum be maintained pending the hearing of the motion on notice filed by Aliyu Muhammad Rabiu before the court. Rabiu had on March 4, 2020 filed a motion ex parte against All Progressive Congress (1st respondent), Adams Oshiomhole, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Inspector-General of Police and Director-General of Department of State Service as 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th respondents. He is seeking an order directing the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th defendants either by themselves, servants, privies, assigns or any officer among others from giving effect to the purported resolution of the Ward 10 Estako West Local Government area of 2nd November, 2019 suspending the 2nd defendant as a member of the 1st defendant pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice. Alagoa granted the order saying: “That all the parties to this suit are directed to maintain the status quo ante bellum pending the hearing and disposal of the motion on notice filed herein that is, an order directing the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th defendants either by themselves, servants, privies, assigns or any officer howsoever described and whatever name called from giving effect to the purported resolution of the Ward 10, Etsako West Local Government Area of 2nd November, 2019 suspending the 2nd defendant (Oshiomhole) as a member of the 1st defendant (APC) pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice. “Also that the 3rd defendant (INEC) is restrained from dealing, communicating or howsoever recognizing any person other than the 2nd defendant (Oshiomhole) as the National Chairman of the 1st defendant (APC) for any party business or carrying out any duties vested on the commission by the Electoral Act. READ ALSO: Bayelsa Polls: ‘Members who worked against PDP’s interest should be suspended, sanctioned’ “Furthermore that the time the defendants in this suit shall enter appearance and file their processes in defence of this suit is abridged to seven (7) days.” Justice Lewis Alagoa adjourned the matter to April 8, 2020 for hearing. Only APC’s NWC or NEC can suspend me, Oshiomhole tells court Fighting for his job, Oshiomhole lodged a four-ground appeal before the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal to challenge the validity of the interim injunction a the FCT Federal High Court issued for his suspension from office. In his appeal, Oshiomhole insisted that he could only be suspended from office by either the National Working Committee, NWC, or the National Executive Council, NEC, of the APC. Justice Danlami Senchi of the FCT Federal High Court had in a ruling on Wednesday, ordered Oshiomhole to stop parading himself as the national chairman of the APC, pending the determination of a substantive suitbrought against him by six aggrieved members of the party. The plaintiffs, Mustapha Salihu, Anselm Ojezua, Alhaji Sani Gomna, Oshawo Steven, Hon. Fani Wabulari and Evang. Princewill Ejogharado, had in their suit marked FCT/HC/CV/837/2020, insisted that Oshiomhole had no right to continue to perform the duties of the National Chairman of the APC, having been suspended as a member of the party from his Etsako Ward 10, in Edo State. However, in his four grounds of appeal, Oshiomhole contended that the high court lacked the powers to suspend him from office. His words: “The learned trial court erred in law and arrived at a wrong conclusion which occasioned a miscarriage of justice when at the interlocutory stage it decided the question that the Appellant in the performance of his duties as National Chairman of the 2nd Appellant would interfere with the 1st to 6th Respondents’ membership rights of the 2nd Appellant. “The issue of the 1st Appellant’s performance of the 1st Appellant’s duties of National Chairman of the 2nd Appellant is a matter which arises from the substantive issues for determination and claim and ought not to be determined at the interlocutory stage during the determination of the Motion for interlocutory injunction. “The learned trial court erred in law and arrived at a wrong conclusion which occasioned a miscarriage of justice when after ordering the filing of pleading, it immediately set down Motion for interlocutory injunction for hearing in the absence of pleadings. “The trial court determined the Motion for interlocutory injunction, without recourse to triable issues which ought to have been discerned from pleadings.
“The learned trial court erred in law and arrived at a wrong conclusion which occasioned a miscarriage of justice when it held that the 1st to 6th Respondents had disclosed a legal right that required to be protected by the grant of the interlocutory injunction. “The 1st to 6th Respondents disclosed no right enshrined in the 2nd Appellant’s constitution, entitling a member of the 2nd Appellant to the suspension of the National Chairman of the 2nd Appellant, without recourse to the National Working Committee and National Executive Council of the 2nd Appellant. ‘’The trial court erred in law and arrived at a wrong conclusion which occasioned a miscarriage of justice when in deciding the balance of convenience it held that the disruption capable of being occasioned by the grant of the interlocutory injunction outweighed the inconvenience to be suffered by the 1st to 6th Respondents.” He therefore sought for an order allowing the appeal and setting aside the interlocutory injunction suspending him as the National Chairman of the APC. He cited the Inspector General of the Police and the State Security Service as the 7th and 8th respondents in the appeal. My tenure ‘ll be defined by God not man – Oshiomhole Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting behind closed doors with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Oshiomhole said, yesterday, that his tenure will be defined by God and not man. He also admitted that he had made some mistakes, adding however that he has the capacity to correct such mistakes, saying he challenged his opponents if they had never made mistakes. The APC Chairman met the President shortly after the Chairman of Nigeria’s Governors Forum, NGF, and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi and the governors of Kebbi and Jigawa, Atiku Bagudu and Abubakar Badaru respectively met separately with the President. A minister, some govs responsible for APC crisis Comrade Oshiomhole who said the crisis in the party did not arise from his native Edo State, alleged that a serving minister and some governors were responsible for his ordeal in the party, adding that some of them did not produce a councilor in their states. According to him, “You will recall that I was here two days ago to brief Mr. President as I always do on matters affecting the party. Just yesterday (Wednesday) morning suddenly I saw in the news that a FCT High Court has suspended me as national chairman, and that the person who went to court include one of my vice-chairmen, North-East, Mustapha Salihu and four others. I was taken back because in the same suit they joined the APC, the Police and the DSS. “Our lawyers told me that in law when you sue a federal agency, FCT High Court has no jurisdiction to entertain it. Number two, the purported suspension of my person by my ward, first is not even true and I am going to give you a document to that effect so that you can form your opinion. “Number three, I am not an officer of my ward, I am the national chairman of my party, elected at a national convention by over 7,000 delegates, so how could nine persons sit down somewhere and purport that they have removed a national chairman? “The court contrary to all logic, all judicial precedence find comfort in granting an interim interlocutory order to stop me from functioning pending when the matter is determined. In other words, he has given the order without the facts being laid before him and in the process adjourned the case to 7th of April.” He alleged that his opponents in the party who masterminded the move leading to the interlocutory injunction of the FCT High Court, also ensured the suit was adjourned to April 7, so that they could have enough time to perpetrate their mischief. He enthused that the injunction from a Kano Federal High Court had rendered the interlocutory injunction useless, alleging that only the FCT High Court judge could explain how he came about his initial injunction. “The calculations are clear that between now and April 7, my opponents in the system would have had ample time to do all the mischievous plans they have in place to destabilize the APC, because, some of them have membership of more than one political party. “But happily this afternoon (yesterday) a federal high court that I believe that has jurisdictions on federal issues because the DSS, the police are not state institutions but federal institutions, gave an appropriate order to restrain the so-called suspension that was allegedly imposed on me by my ward in Edo State. “I thought that I had a duty to brief Mr. President as the overall leader of our party about this development. Incidentally, when I requested for the audience yesterday, I wasn’t sure what has happened today will happen. “But I had a duty to inform him about the court order. But happily before coming here, the order from a Federal High Court that has made nonsense of what the FCT court purported to have done has already settled the question.” He continued: “Let me also say that those behind this plot, the hands you saw which include as you saw yesterday the Edo State governor and his people jubilating. But that is the irony of life that you will help give birth to a child and the child look for cutlass to want to chop off your neck. “It has happened in history, it has happened in this country so I won’t be only person. But there are only other forces who see me for whatever reason as a threat to them. And those leading this anti-Oshiomhole campaign, some of them I emphasize, cannot even boast of a councillor in their states even as they lay claim to leadership position in our party.” According to him, as the national chairman of the party, he is not an officer of his ward and hence, the ward has no power to suspend him. He also alleged that the judge of the FCT High Court who barred him from parading himself as the party’s national chairman only twisted a vote of confidence passed on him by the ward to imply a vote of no confidence. The embattled party chairman who said he had given his all to the party including sacrificing his family well-being in the interest of the party, pointed out that whenever the party records a victory, his opponents don’t give him credit but when it loses, he is accused as the architect. On the response of the President, he said: “Let me assure you, as leader of the party, I will not go to town with decisions that I know are of strong importance to the survival of our party. It is not just as a matter of courtesy, but even as a matter of duty, to explain them and to be certain that the President accepts because at the end of the day when the chips are down, this President recognizes that he’s elected on the platform of a political party and he will like to see to the survival and the strength of that party.” Asked whether the President was comfortable with his leadership in the APC, he said: “Now you want me to read him; I will decline. If you are in doubt, you are so privileged here that you can ask the President: are you comfortable or uncomfortable? I am not a comfort reader, what I have done I have explained to you, that much I know is the truth. As for questions that have to do with inner feelings, those you can confirm if you are in doubt.” Oshiomhole to resume today Meanwhile, barring any last-minute developments, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole will resume today after a Federal High Court in Kano State set aside the ruling of a Federal Capital Territory FCT High Court that suspended him. He is to resume with members of the National Working Committee, NWC, including three new officers whose appointments were approved on Wednesday. The new party officials are Arch. Waziri Bulama who is the party’s acting national secretary; Senator Abiola Ajimobi, deputy national chairman (South); and Mr. Paul Chukwuma, national auditor. Their resumption however, would be after another meeting with President Buhari, Vanguard gathered.
NWC member kicks However, National Vice Chairman, North-East zone of the party, Comrade Mustapha Salihu faulted the court order, saying the party would obey Wednesday’s order of a Federal Capital Territory FCT High Court suspending Oshiomhole. According to him, a court of coordinate jurisdiction cannot set aside the order of another court. He said: “First of all, I want be very brief because we have a case in court and I am a plaintiff so I do not want to be sub-judice. But I want to tell you from my knowledge of law that two courts of coordinate jurisdiction cannot sit on appeal on an order or judgement given by each other. A Federal High Court cannot sit on appeal on the FCT High Court. The only court that has the jurisdiction to sit on appeal is the Court of Appeal in this case and the court order of the FCT High Court was served yesterday.
“Most of you have a copy of the order and it is elementary law that first in time prevails, that of Abuja High Court came earlier and we seek for interlocutory injunction and there is affidavit of urgency which seeks to prevent certain kinds of mischief which we prayed that the court should help prevent which they did. So, if you look at the main reason why that introductory order was granted I do not think that a Federal High Court of the same jurisdiction will now come and set it aside. We don’t need the knowledge of law to know that a high court cannot sit on a matter of appeal in another high court. So, I don’t want to say much about the order but I want to say that it is only the Court of Appeal that can vacate this injunction. “As you can see, we are in the secretariat and we are running the affairs of the party. So, the suspension still prevails until the hearing of the matter or if there is any contrary order from the court of appeal.” He described as laughable the announcement of some new officers of the party by the National Working Committee NWC. He said: “That is laughable because that one is what amuses me most and it is very pathetic and disturbing because we saw an announcement that purported that we approved nominations of three officers on the 14th of January, one of these officers which is the Deputy National Chairman, South, even the nomination from his state came to the national vice chairman on the 28 of February, almost 40 days after the date of the purported meeting, the meeting we had on the 14th January. I came out of the meeting and I told you guys that the meeting was stopped because they were trying to perpetrate illegality on the National Secretary; the matter of the other people was referred to the zone, nobody discussed it. “But seeing that he (Oshiomhole) has been suspended, he now had to bring out that information. I don’t think it is a civil matter, I think our lawyers are looking at it because it is a criminal matter. “I am a working committee member and I was not in the meeting, where are the minutes of the meeting? Where was it held? And how do we approve a nomination that is yet to come? We are not running a banana republic. This is a party and not a block industry or a motor park. Our lawyers are looking at it and if we find any criminal act, we will prosecute.” Asked whether the NWC was doing anything to replace Oshiomhole, he said: “It is not the duty of the NWC to source for replacement; instead the NWC looks at the day-to-day affairs of the party. Any major decision as to this effect would be handled by NEC and if the need be convention will take place.” Lawyers fault Federal High Court, Kano Some lawyers who spoke to Vanguard expressed deep concern over the development, saying such decision by the Federal High Court, Kano does not augur well for the integrity of the judiciary. Human Rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, said: “It is indeed a worrisome development that courts of coordinate jurisdiction are issuing different, inconsistent and conflicting orders in respect of the same subject matter, thus exposing the judiciary to public ridicule. The speed at which ex-parte orders of injunction are granted in political cases is very disturbing indeed. “However, the bulk of the blame rests on politicians and their lawyers who file these frivolous cases, knowing that a case is pending before a court in Abuja, only to rush to Kano to file another case on the same subject matter. This is indirectly exposing the judiciary as a politically exposed institution, which should not be the case at all. Also reacting to the Kano Federal High Court’s decision, Executive Director, Cadrell Advocacy Centre, Evan Ufeli said it is wrong for a court of concurrent jurisdiction to set aside the order or orders of another. He said: “This useless practice must stop forthwith and the judiciary must not destroy itself. Only a superior court can set aside the order or orders of a lower court. We must not turn the judiciary into some house of commotion or a den of madmen working at cross-purposes with themselves. “The ugly precedent was initiated few years ago and we raised alarm. Today, this precedent has come to give us a run for our lives. It is like taking a poisonous leaf to a purification feast. You don’t take a poisonous leaf to a purification feast as this will leave us all in total confusion, desecration and a possible breakdown of law and order. It’s my humble opinion that we must keep the stream of justice clean and restore the constitutional powers of the judiciary in line with other subsidiary legislation.” A senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Lagos State University, Gbenga Ojo, insisted that the judge should be sanctioned by NJC. According to him, the FCT High Court and High Court of State are courts of concurrent jurisdiction. In fact, the case filed at the Federal High Court, Kano Division is an abuse of the process of the court. Of course the lawyer that filed the suit should be sanctioned by Nigerian Bar Association, NBA.”
Source: Vanguard
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