Court gives accelerated hearing in suit against PDP’s presidential primary election

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Tuesday, gave an accelerated hearing in a suit seeking to stop the planned May 28 Presidential Primary Election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

A presidential aspirant and former Deputy Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Cosmas Ndukwe, had on April 28 brought an ex-parte application for an order of injunction restraining the PDP from proceeding with its scheduled primary election pending the hearing and determination of his suit challenging the position of the party on the issue of zoning the party’s presidential ticket.

Defendants in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/508/2022 are PDP, its National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, Senator Samuel Anyanwu and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 1st to 4th respectively.

The trial Judge, Justice Donatus Okorowo, while ruling on an application for abridgement of time, gave PDP, its National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, National Secretary Senator Samuel Nnaemeka Anyanwu four days within which to file their responses to the suit against them.

The Judge also ordered that all the applications challenging the jurisdiction of the Court to entertain the matter and the competence of the suit shall be heard along with the substantive suit and the next adjourned date.

Justice Okorowo adjourned till May 18, 2022, for parties in the matter to adopt their processes in the matter, after which judgement will be delivered.

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Earlier, the court granted an order of substituted service on the third defendant, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, whom, plaintiff counsel said, efforts to serve him with the court processes had proved abortive.

Erokoro said the PDP and its national chairman have responded to the plaintiffs originating summons and had filed preliminary objections to the suit.

Counsel to the PDP, Mahmud Magaji (SAN), while opposing the plaintiff’s application for abridgement of the time argued that the case is a pre-election matter and is regulated by the Electoral Act and that since the jurisdiction of the court was being challenged, the court cannot grant the Plaintiff’s request for abridgement of time until the issue of jurisdiction is determined one way or the other.

Counsel to the second defendant, Abdullahi Aliyu on his part, told the court that the plaintiff has not furnished the court with enough facts for the court to exercise its discretionary power and urged the court to dismiss the application.

Meanwhile, counsel to the third defendant (Sen. Anyanwu), Kalu Agu, informed the court that his client has not been served with any of the processes filed by the plaintiff.

“My client needs to be served with processes in the matter to enable him to react appropriately as anything done outside that will amount to an infringement of his right to fair hearing,” Agu said and urged the court to dismiss the application.

Cosmos Ndukwe, who is currently the Commissioner for Trade and Investment in Abia State as well as a presidential aspirant on the PDP platform is asking the Court to stop PDP from proceeding with the presidential primary election on the ground of alleged refusal of the party to zone the presidential ticket of the party to South-East geo-political zone.