The Olu Falae-led National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has said, it will appeal the judgment of a Federal High Court in Abuja which struck out their suit seeking to recognize it as the authentic leadership of the party.
Chief Supo Shonibare, who led the group told newsmen shortly after Justice Inyang Ekwo struck out their suit on Friday, for lacking in merit that their lawyers will study the judgment and will approach the Court of Appeal on it.
According to the Judge, the subject matter of the suit was the internal affairs of the SDP and that, the court cannot interfere in it.
He said the plaintiffs are members of the party, which has its internal mechanism for settling issues among members and added that the party has the right to amend its constitution.
Justice Ekwo said, political parties need not drag the court into its internal affairs and added, “I find that there is no cause of action in this case as the subject matter is an internal affairs of the party.
“I decline jurisdiction on this suit and I make an order striking out the suit for lacking in merit,” Justice Ekwo held.
The SDP, Chief Supo Shonibare and 10 others had in 2019 dragged Professor Adeniran and 11 others before the Federal High Court Abuja, over the authentic leadership of the SDP.
Other plaintiffs who claimed to be part of the national and state executives of the SDP include Nasiru Naaba, Kelvin Damara, Saleh Dass, Cornrulus Oreruan, Tunde Onokoya, Abubakar Babaiya, Hassan Adamu, Aniekwe Ikechukwu, Isaac Bello and Mohammed Ibrahim.
Professor Tunde Adeniran, Shehu Gaban, Emeka Atuma, Professor Rufai Alkali, Marian Tolopari, Dr Junaid Mohammed, Senator Ebenezer Ikeyina, Senator Erin Henshaw, David Umah, Stanley Nnanka, Joseph Achile, and INEC are listed as 1st to 12th defendants respectively.
In the suit marked FHA/A/ABJ/CS/1358/2019, plaintiffs claimed that they were elected at the party’s national convention on March 9, 2016, for a period of four years and would leave office on March 8, 2020.
Plaintiffs averred that their tenure had not expired when sometime in 2018, Professor Tunde Adeniran and his group hijacked the party on claims that they were appointed at the party’s 2018 national convention.
Shonibare, who claimed to be the Acting National Chairman of the party, following the resignation of the National Chairman, Chief Olu Falae in 2019, insisted that there was no election of party officials in 2018.
In addition, plaintiffs who tied their claim to office on the provisions of the party’s 2012 Constitution, noted that neither the 2012 constitution nor the purported one adopted by Falae and some others did not allow for the appointment of NEC members.
They urged the court to hold that the 1 to 11 defendants are not the authentic leadership of the SDP.
However, the 1,2,4,9 and 11 defendants represented by Peter Nwata, in denying claims that they have colluded with INEC, informed the court that the 2 to 12 plaintiffs had no locus to institute the legal action in the first place and that their names should be struck out from the suit.
According to him, while the second defendant was expelled from the party, others at various times had resigned and so ceased to be members of the party.
In its own opposition to the suit, INEC maintained that the case of the plaintiffs has become statute-barred by provisions of Section 251 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, adding that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
