The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed January twenty-third for the hearing of an application seeking to halt further proceedings in a leadership dispute involving the Kabiru Turaki–led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik adjourned the matter to enable a formal response to the application for stay of proceedings.
Counsel to the Turaki-led PDP, Chris Uche, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, told the court that his clients had filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal challenging an earlier ex-parte order made by the trial court.
Uche argued that once an appeal has been entered, the trial court no longer has jurisdiction to continue with the matter. He urged the court to suspend proceedings pending the determination of the appeal and requested an indefinite adjournment.
In response, counsel to the opposing faction, Onyechi Ikpeazu, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, confirmed the existence of the appeal but argued that an appeal does not automatically stop proceedings.
He described the appeal as interlocutory and maintained that it does not affect the substance of the case.
Ikpeazu also informed the court that his clients were served with the stay application only a day earlier but said he was prepared to address the court on points of law.
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Justice Abdulmalik, however, directed that a formal response be filed and adjourned the matter to January twenty-third for hearing of the application for stay.
In a separate request, the Turaki-led PDP also asked the judge to withdraw from the case, citing what it described as a reasonable apprehension of bias.
The applicants urged that the matter be reassigned by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, relying on constitutional provisions on fair hearing.
The substantive suit, filed by the Abdulrahman faction of the PDP, seeks to restrain the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services from granting the Turaki-led group access to the party’s national secretariat.
The plaintiffs are also asking the court to bar the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from recognising any office address submitted by the Turaki-led faction and to stop the group from presenting itself as the legitimate leadership of the party.
They further want INEC and security agencies to enforce earlier court judgments delivered by Justices James Omotosho and Peter Lifu.
(Editor: Ada Ononye)
