The states executives of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-west loyal to the Ali Modu Sherrif’s faction have filed an application at the Supreme Court to stop the newly constituted panel of the Court of Appeal from hearing appeals relating to the party’s nomination of candidate for the Ondo State governorship election.
They are also asking the Court of Appeal in Abuja to reverse the decision by its President, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, to constitute a fresh panel to hear these appeals.
In a motion filed yesterday by members of state executives of the PDP in the six South-west states loyal to Ali Modu Sheriff and led by Biyi Poroye, the factional Chairman of the Ondo State PDP, they also asked the court to disband the new appeal court’s panel comprising Justices Ibrahim Salauwa, Ignatius Igwe Aguba, and George Mbaba.
They said the new panel was allegedly set up in breach of their right to fair hearing guaranteed under Section 36 of the constitution.
Poroye and others equally prayed the court to order the return of the case files relating to the appeals and the application for leave to appeal as an interested party (against the decision of the Federal High Court of October 14 2016 in suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/395/2016) – filed by Eyitayo Jegede (factional PDP candidate of the state PDP “to the Registry of the Court of Appeal to take its normal course and turn in the docket of the court.”
The affected appeals are: CA/A/551/2016 filed by Ahmed Makarfi and Ben Obi against Poroye and 10 others and CA/A/551A/2016 filed by Clement Faboyede and another against 10 others; CA/A551B/2016 filed by the PDP against Poroye and 9 others and CA/A/551C/2016 filed by Jegede against Poroye and 10 others.
They argued that not only did the President of the Court of Appeal act without hearing from them, the case, being a pre-election matter, did not warrant any urgency to require the constitution of a special panel.
They added that those who filed the appeals against the June 29 and October 14, 2016 decisions of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, were not parties in the cases leading to the decisions.
The applicants also argued that no orders were made against any of them (those behind the new appeals) and that they (the applicants), who were plaintiffs in the suits, were not informed when the President of the Court of Appeal acted solely on the request by the appellants to constitute the panel on the grounds of urgency.
They have also filed a motion before the Supreme Court seeking a stay of all proceedings before the Court of Appeal in relation to the appeals pending the determination of the two appeals they filed on October 31, which have entered and given number: SC/914/2016 and SC/915/2016.
The motion filed by two members of the party, Benson Akingboye and Ehiozuwa Agbonayiwa, seeks a stay of all further proceedings and further hearing in CA/ABJ/402A/2016 filed on behalf of the PDP by a lawyer engaged by the Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the party’s leadership.
They based the application on the ground that it was wrong to allow the Court of Appeal to proceed with the appeals when they have valid appeals before the Supreme Court, which challenged the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal.
Other grounds raised by them are: “As the first and second respondents in the lower court, they (Akingboye and Agbonayiwa) challenged by way of preliminary objection the validity of the appeal which originated the appeal at the court below.
The appeal at the Supreme Court, filed on October 31, 2016, by Akingboye and Agbonayiwa, is against the October 29, 2016, decision by the former panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Jumai Sankey in which it ordered accelerated hearing in the appeals.
No date is set for hearing of the appeal filed for the appellant by B.E.I. Nwofor (SAN) yet.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/11/04/ondo-poll-south-west-pdp-loyal-to-sheriff-heads-to-supreme-court/
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