Soludo Knows Fate Nov 16,Anambra PDP's Exco Rejects Dissolution
From Lemmy Ughegbe, Abuja and Chuks Collins, Awka
PROF Chukwuma Soludo, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate for the 2010 election in Anambra State, will have to wait till November 16, this year to know whether or not his political ambition will remain intact or not.
On the said date, an Abuja High Court will rule on Soludo's application seeking to vacate its order, restraining him from contesting the said election state.
Justice Danlami Zenchi fixed the date yesterday following adoption of arguments by parties to the suit.
Four aggrieved PDP governorship aspirants led by Valentine Ozigboh had on October 23 obtained an ex parte order at the Abuja High Court, which restrained Soludo from parading himself as the candidate of the party on the grounds that his selection was done in flagrant disobedience to an Aguata High Court order.
Meanwhile, the dissolved Anambra State Executive Committee (SEC) of the PDP led by Benjy Ideozor has rejected the action of the National Working Committee of the party.
The court restrained the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising Soludo in the status pending the determination of the main suit against him.
But yesterday, Soludo represented by Patrick Ikwueto (SAN) persuaded Justice Zenchi to vacate and set aside the order to enable the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), execute his governorship project.
In the two motions argued before Zenchi, Soludo demanded that the order, which had kept his candidature in the limbo be lifted and that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit brought against him.
He claimed that the court granted the ex parte on inconsistent and contradictory statements of claims by the plaintiffs.
Soludo insisted that the court ought not to have granted the order because the act of his nomination complained of had been completed at the time the suit was filed.
He also claimed that the plaintiffs suppressed and misrepresented facts to get the court order and pleaded that it be discharged.
In the second motion, Soludo challenged the powers of the court to hear the case on the grounds that nomination of a candidate is an exclusive right of a political party, which no court can inquire into.
The defendant maintained that court could only intervene after the name had been submitted to INEC and only when the issue of substitution arises and, therefore urged the court to decline jurisdiction and strike out the suit for lacking in merit.
Soludo's line of argument was toed by the PDP, which was represented by its National Legal Adviser, Chief Olusola Oke.
The party insisted that what the plaintiffs challenged was the process that produced the candidate, adding that, the Anambra High Court order, which prohibited the PDP congress and being paraded by the plaintiffs had expired at the time Soludo was picked on consensus.
He therefore urged the court to set aside its order of October 23 and to refuse to hear the case on the grounds that the issue of nomination of candidate was an internal affair of any party, which no court can adjudicate upon.
The four plaintiffs however asked the court to sustain and maintain the order in order to protect their legal and political rights.
They submitted that the court has jurisdiction to hear the case because the PDP deliberately violated its own constitution and the Electoral Act 2006 in the selection of Soludo.
At a press conference in Awka, yesterday, the committee observed that its purported dissolution by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali on Thursday in Abuja was illegal, unconstitutional and unpatriotic.
Udeozor said the PDP constitution did not allow for a caretaker committee or any interim management panel.
He said: "This committee hereby calls on President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to call Chief Vincent Ogbulafor (the PDP national chairman) to order, else he will destroy the gains of Yar'Adua's administration in this country. Ogbulafor has murdered internal democracy in PDP, which even leaves our electoral victory against other political parties in doubt,"
Udeozor argued that his team had nothing to hand over to the caretaker body headed by Dr. Osita Ogbu.
He said the secretariat, vehicles and other property being used by the committee were not provided by the PDP but by Chief Chris Uba. They, therefore, asked the Ogbu committee to source its own secretariat and logistics.
Meanwhile the Federal High Court in Awka has fixed ruling for December 15, this year in an application brought before it by an Onitsha-based civil society group to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), in Anambra to carry out the continuous voters' registration in the state.
The trial judge, Peter Olayiwola, after asking the counsel to the parties to submit their written addresses, adjourned ruling till the new date.
The applicants - Trustees of the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law - had applied for an order of mandamus to compel INEC to conduct the continuous registration of voters as prescribed by the Electoral Act and other duties of INEC required before the conduct of the governorship election in the state.
But INEC objected to the application on the grounds that the body lacked the locus standi to institute the suit. It also argued that the matter was statute-barred and that it amounted to a hypothetical and mere academic exercise.
Counsel to the applicants, Mr. Uche Dureke said if the court grants the prayer of Intersociety, it would make INEC sit up and do its duties as prescribed by law and that the group is a legal organisation under Nigerian constitution.
But INEC counsel, Mr. Sulayman Ibrahim said the application was not necessary because the commission was guided by the Electoral Act, which says registration of voters must stop 120 days to any election.
