Oshiomhole’s Suspension Remains, Nigeria Lawyers Insist

LAGOS MARCH 7^TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Lawyers on Thursday said a Kano Federal High Court ruling setting aside the ruling of the FCT High Court which suspended na­tional chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, from of­fice cannot stand.

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), a Lagos-based legal practitioner and human rights activist, cautioned judges to be careful not to subject themselves to public ridicule over the pronounce­ments they make, especially as regards political matters.

In a chat with Daily Inde­pendent, Adegboruwa, while reacting to the ruling by the Federal High Court in Kano said courts of coordinate jurisdiction issuing incon­sistent orders on the same subject matter is worrisome.

The presiding judge of the Federal High Court in Kano, Justice Lewis Allagoa, or­dered that the status quo ante bellum be maintained, pend­ing the hearing of the motion on notice by the applicant, Ali­yu Muhammad Rabiu.

Justice Danlami Senchi of the FCT High Court had on Wednesday granted an order of interim injunction stopping Oshiomhole from parading himself as the APC national chairman.

Reacting to the judgment, Adegboruwa said: “I just be­lieve that the judiciary needs to tread cautiously in respect of political matters because of the wrong impression that it is creating in the minds of the general public: when you approach a court, you can get an injunction in one day.

“You can file an appeal and the appeal can be heard in one day; when we lawyers who come to court know that, ordinarily, it takes two weeks before you even assign a case, and for an appeal to be heard can take up to two months in ordinary cases.

“So, I believe that courts of coordinate jurisdiction issu­ing different and inconsistent orders in respect of the same subject matter are opening up the judiciary to ridicule and it should be avoided.

“I have not seen the details of these orders but if it is true that one court restrained him and another reinstates him in respect of the same case, it is quite worrisome.

“Our judges must be very careful not to expose them­selves to undue public ridi­cule.”

Also, Monday Ubani, im­mediate past second national vice president of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), has described the judgment of the Kano High Court as an absurdity.

Ubani maintained that only an appellate court could set aside the order of the Abu­ja High Court. He stressed that the order from the Kano High Court should be ignored as it lacked merit.

“The Kano High Court order cannot stand. It is an absurdity. Only an appellate court can set aside the order of the Abuja High Court. They should ignore the use­less order of the Kano High Court,” he said.

Similarly, Justice Uhueg­bu, lawyer and activist, ar­gued that the Abuja High Court judgment suspending Oshiomhole was still valid, stressing that only the appeal court could set aside the judg­ment.

Uhuegbu, who is the na­tional president, Associa­tion for Good Governance (AFGG), in a chat with Daily Independent, maintained that when two equities meet, the law prevails and when two laws meet, the first in time prevails.

He pointed out that since the Abuja High Court was the first to make an order in the same matter, its judgment must prevail over the judg­ment of the Kano High Court.

Uhuegbu said that since the judgment was given by a court of competent jurisdic­tion, the Kano High Court had erred by making a judgment in the same matter.

“This is what I will call bas­tardising the judicial process. How can a high court give an order, another high court will give a counter order on the same matter?

“The only court that can set aside what the Abuja High Court has done is the appeal court,” he said.

The lawyer said Oshiom­hole was only wasting his time approaching what he called a kangaroo court for a mission impossible.

Furthermore, the former president of Igbo think-tank, Aka Ikenga, Chief Goddy Uwazurike, said the whole process could be described as judicial rascality.

He said: “Speaking from the law perspective, there was no ruling in Kano and, as far as I am concerned, no prac­tising judge will sit on such matter without having a file of the proceedings.”

Uwazurike added that Os­hiomhole erred by taking the matter to a Kano court.

“Oshiomhole ought to have filed an appeal where he resides in Abuja instead of Kano, where there is no ju­risdiction to get a court order.

“However, if the Kano rul­ing is actually true, I believe the National Judicial Council (NJC) of old that I know will step in and retire the judge that sat on such matter,” he said.

Moreover, the national president of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Malachy Ug­wummadu, said the order ob­tained by the embattled APC chair was incomprehensible from the angle of the law.

“It is incomprehensive in the sense that the court of such jurisdiction will over­rule the ruling of another court,” he said.

He added that there were two conflicting statements pertaining to the order, be­cause Oshiomhole had also filed an appeal on the same order.

Malachy raised the follow­ing question: “When was the Kano State application filed and what is the nature of the affidavit filed before the court?”

While noting that the above question was an ad­ministrative issue, he added that it was inconceivable that the ruling of a court could be overruled by another court of coordinate jurisdiction.

“The move by Oshiomhole simply shows that the other party can also run to Owerri or any other state to get anoth­er order,” he said.

On his part, Comrade Sa­lihu Mustapha, APC Vice Chairman (North East), chided the suspended na­tional chairman of the APC, Oshiomhole, for procuring an unenforceable ex parte order from a court of coordinate jurisdiction.

Mustapha said the APC National Working Commit­tee was investigating who released a purported list of NWC members allegedly made by the party on Janu­ary 14, 2020.

Reacting to the Kano High Court judgment reinstating Oshiomhole on Thursday, Mustapha, whose application for an interim injunction led to Oshiomhole’s suspension by an FCT court, said the sus­pended chairman was trying to be smart by half.

He said it was too obvious to even non legal minds that a Federal High Court cannot va­cate an order made by a state High Court, both of equal or coordinate jurisdiction.

“First of all, I want to be very brief because we have a case in court and I am a plain­tiff in this matter, so I don’t want to say what may be sub judicial to the case.

“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 judgment given by each other.

“A Federal High Court cannot sit on appeal on a case before the FCT High Court. The only court that has the jurisdiction to sit on an ap­peal is the Court of Appeal in this case, and the order of the FCT High Court was served yesterday.

“Most of you have the copy of the order and it is an ele­mentary law that first in time prevails. That of Abuja High Court came earlier.

“So, if you look at the main reason why that interlocuto­ry order was granted, I don’t 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 a 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.”

Mustapha, therefore, maintained that Oshiomhole remained suspended until the appellate court adjudicated on the matter.

“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.”

On the late announcement on Wednesday by the party of new members of the NWC, he said the party was inves­tigating the source of that statement and vowed crimi­nal prosecution of whoever issued the statement.

He maintained that no re­placement for those positions had been made by the NWC and told Nigerians to discoun­tenance the misinformation.

According to him the last meeting of the NWC on the subject-matter was incon­clusive while the name of Ajimobi, former governor of Oyo State, was just submitted in February from his zone.

He wondered when the NWC met over the list before giving its approval.

On the list he said: “That’s 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 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 do illegality on the national secretary, the mat­ter of the other people was referred to the zone, nobody discussed it.”

He said the NWC was in­vestigating the whole saga and discussing with lawyers to see if any criminal liability was involved, as he vowed to get to the root of the matter.

Minister, Governors Behind My Travails — Oshiomhole

Meanwhile, the suspend­ed chairman on Thursday accused a cabinet member of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and some serving governors as behind his ordeal.

He revealed this to State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Oshiomhole, who said he was unruffled, said none of his detractors can oust him as chairman except God or­dains it.

A High Court of the Fed­eral Capital Territory (FCT), Jabi District, had granted an interlocutory injunction, upholding the suspension of Oshiomhole, pending the de­termination of a substantive suit before it.

The judge, Danlami Sen­chi, gave the order following an application of interlocu­tory injunction seeking an order of the court to suspend Oshiomhole, having been sus­pended as a member of the APC from his Etsako Ward 10 in Edo State.

He, however, appealed the case, seeking stay of execu­tion from a High Court in Kano. Justice Lewis Allagoa of the Federal High Court in Kano, had set aside the rul­ing of the FCT High Court suspending him as the ruling party national chairman.

While likening himself as a child of light who will always defeat darkness, he accused the governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, as be­ing a chief plotter in a coup to oust him, despite benefiting from his magnanimity.

“You will recall that I was here two days ago to brief Mr. President as always on matters affecting the party. Just yesterday (Wednesday) morning suddenly I saw in the news that an FCT High Court has suspended me as national chairman. And that the person who went to court includes one of my vice chairmen, North East, one Mustapha (Musta­pha Salihu, APC national vice chairman, North East) and four others. I was taken back because in the same suit they joined the APC, the police as well as the DSS.

“Our lawyers told me that in law that 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 through 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.

“And 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.

“The calculations are clear that between now and April 7th, my opponent in the system would have had ample time to do all the mis­chievous plans they have in place to destabilise the APC. Because, some of them have membership of more than one political party.

“But happily this after­noon, 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, has given 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.

“And I showed to the pres­ident the resolutions of my ward even though a ward executive does not have the powers to remove a nation­al chairman, just to say that the document that we have says clearly that my ward passed vote of confidence on me. How the court can hold vote of confidence and twist it to mean vote of no confidence, only that judge can explain it to himself.

“But the good news is that this is not a final court nor is it the only court, inciden­tally it is just the court that didn’t have the jurisdiction even to listen to this matter. And our lawyers so point­ed it out but the judge was determined to oblige those who want to destabilise the All Progressives Congress.

“Let me also say that those behind this plot, the hands you saw which includes as you saw yesterday you saw 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 looks 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 the only person. But there are also other forces who see me for whatever reason that am a threat to them. And those leading this anti-Oshiomhole campaign, some of them I emphasise, cannot even boast of councilor in their state, even as they lay claim to leadership position in our party.

“I am proud to say that I have done my best not only when I was a governor, I have done my best as chairman of this party, I have worked not only with members of the party and with support of the good people of Nige­ria for the president to be re-elected, for us to have ma­jority in the two chambers of the National Assembly, I also worked hard to deliver my unit, my ward.

“I worked hard in my local government area, I worked hard in my federal constituency, three of them in my senatorial zone; I also worked hard to produce my senator. Those fighting me couldn’t deliver even a coun­cilor of a local government area in their unit. And they just feel that if they cannot give me orders then they must do everything to em­barrass my person, but I be­lieve that he who God stands with no man born of a wom­an can bring him down.

“I can’t say more than that. Those who are parad­ing themselves, holding meetings at night, my prayer to my God is that let them meet at night, what they do at night will be destroyed by light in the day time. I don’t go for night business, I do day business. They know themselves, they know me and I know them”.

Oshiomhole: Police Continue Occupation Of APC Secretariat

Again, the heavy security mounted by the Nigeria po­lice at the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja increased on Thursday as they took over the entire Blantyre Street, Wuse 2.

It was not initially certain whether the presence of the police was a tacit endorse­ment of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s removal by en­tities high up in government.

However, investigation shows that the police and men of the Department of State Services (DSS) were acting according to the orders of the court that suspended Os­hiomhole.

An enrolment of the order issued by the court specially directed the police and the DSS to deploy their staff at the APC secretariat with the aim of ensuring that Oshiom­hole did not gain access to the office of the chairman of the party, pending the determina­tion of the suit.

Iindependent.ng

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