Sunday Ejike, Author at Tribune Online

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Monday barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from taking any steps related to the removal of Senator Samuel Anyanwu as the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The trial judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, issued the order on the same day the PDP and Hon. Udeh-Okoye Enemchukwu—whom the party had endorsed as its national scribe—applied to be joined as interested and necessary parties in the suit filed by Senator Anyanwu. The senator had approached the court to restrain INEC from implementing his removal as the National Secretary of the PDP. In the motion ex parte filed through his legal team, led by Mr. Ken Njemanze, SAN, the applicant specifically prayed for an order barring INEC or its agents from receiving or acting upon any correspondence or submission from the PDP unless such documents were signed by him. He further sought an injunction restraining the National Chairman of the party, Umar Damagun, from forwarding any correspondence, document, or written submission to INEC without his signature. However, instead of granting the prayers, the court, in a ruling delivered last Wednesday, directed the applicant to put INEC and Damagun—who were originally listed as defendants in the matter—on notice. Justice Ekwo ordered that the defendants be served with all necessary court processes to enable them to respond to the application and adjourned the case for the defendants to show cause as to why Anyanwu’s prayers should not be granted. At the resumed proceedings on Monday, INEC, through its lawyer Ahmed Mohammed, informed the court that it had filed a counter-affidavit challenging the competence of the suit. ALSO READ: Reverse decision erasing 45 months’ Abia pensioners’ pension, NUP tells Otti Although Mohammed confirmed that he had been duly served with all the processes in the matter, he admitted that INEC had not filed any process to show cause as directed by the court. Expressing dissatisfaction with this development, Justice Ekwo noted that instead of responding to Anyanwu’s application for interim orders, INEC had delved into the substantive matter by filing a counter-affidavit. On their part, Udeh-Okoye’s counsel, Mr. Paul Erokoro, SAN, and PDP’s counsel, Mr. Paul-Harris Ogbole, SAN, informed the court that they had served Senator Anyanwu’s lawyer with separate applications seeking to be joined as parties in the matter. They also requested an amendment of the substantive suit to reflect their names as defendants. While confirming receipt of the joinder applications, Njemanze, SAN, stated that the time for him to respond had not yet elapsed. Before adjourning the case to February 28 for the hearing of all pending applications, Justice Ekwo warned INEC not to take any action that could adversely affect the pending suit. “INEC has not provided any tangible reason to show cause but has instead filed a process that goes to the substance of the matter. “Therefore, it is the order of this court that INEC must not act contrary to the prayers of the applicant until further orders of this court. The 1st and 2nd defendants are hereby restrained from taking any action that contravenes the applicant’s prayers. “I also order an accelerated hearing of this matter,” Justice Ekwo ruled. Meanwhile, the Acting PDP Chairman, Damagun, though served with court processes, was not represented in court. It will be recalled that the Supreme Court had earlier scheduled March 10 to hear an appeal filed by the embattled PDP National Secretary challenging his removal by the Court of Appeal in Enugu. A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Ibrahim Saulawa, approved an accelerated hearing of the case. The Court of Appeal, in a judgment delivered last December, upheld a High Court ruling that removed Senator Anyanwu and recognized Chief Udeh-Okoye as the authentic National Secretary of the party. The court held that Anyanwu’s continued stay in office as National Secretary was in breach of the PDP Constitution, given that he had contested and emerged as the party’s candidate in the Imo State governorship election last year. Dissatisfied with the concurrent judgments of the two courts, Anyanwu approached the Supreme Court, seeking to have them set aside. The Board of Trustees (BoT) and the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP, in line with the subsisting judgments, endorsed Chief Udeh-Okoye as the National Secretary of the party. However, Anyanwu outrightly rejected their decisions, insisting that the position remains the subject of ongoing litigation.