The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has appealed a ruling given on April 28, 2022 by a Federal High Court in Abuja in a suit seeking to halt its presidential primary scheduled for May 28, 2022
Abia Commissioner of Trade and Investment Cosmos Ndukwe had sued the PDP, the Chairman of the party’s Primary Election Planning Committee and the National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu and others, praying that the scheduled primary election be halted.
He accused the PDP of allegedly refusing to honour its zoning arrangement by zoning its presidential ticket for the 2023 presidential election to South East.
He is also aggrieved over his disqualification from participating in the presidential primary election on grounds of alleged anti-party activity.
Ndukwe filed along with the substantive suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/508/2022, an ex-parte application for an order to restrain the PDP from going ahead with the primary election until his suit was determined.
In a ruling on April 28 this year, Justice Donatus Okorowo declined to grant the ex-parte motion as argued by plaintiff’s lawyer, Paul Erokoro (SAN).
Instead, Justice Okorowo ordered the PDP and the other defendants to appear before the court on May 5 to show cause on why the primary election should not be stopped in view of the pending suit by Ndukwe.
They argued that the plaintiff’s originating summons was not ripe for hearing and that the time for the defendants to file counter affidavit against the suit had not lapsed when the judge gave the order.
The appellants claimed that the court erred in law when it failed to aver its mind to the provision of Section 84 (15) of the Electoral Act 2022, before making the order to show cause.
They further stated that the judge erred in not directing the plaintiff to put the defendants on notice, but rather, directed him to show cause on an ex-parte application allegedly anchored on an incompetent originating summons.
The appellants want the Court of Appeal to void and set aside the order of the Federal High Court of April 28 asking them to show cause on why the primary election should not be stopped.
Apart from Ndukwe, other respondents in the appeal are the PDP, Dr Iyorchia Ayu and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 1st to 4th respondents, respectively.
The defendants said, “The cause of action in the suit relates to the internal affairs of a political party and therefore, falls within the doctrine of political questions which are non-justiciable,” adding that as such, the court lacks jurisdiction to entertain it.
On the issue of statute-barred, the PDP averred that the cause of action arose from the PDP National Zoning Committee communique of April 5 whereas the plaintiff’s suit was filed on April 19 (15 days after) in violation of Section 285 of the Constitution which provides for 14 days to file such cases.
While arguing that the plaintiff lacked the necessary legal right to initiate the case, the PDP submitted that no civil right of the plaintiff had been wrong pursuant to Section 6 (6) of the Constitution.
The party, therefore, asked the court to uphold its objection and dismiss the case of the plaintiff, adding that the plaintiff would not be prejudiced or suffer any hardship if the case was dismissed.