OGUN PDP CRISIS: Gov Daniel’s Groups Call For Removal Of Judge

Three groups under the aegis of Coalition Against Annulment, CANNU, believed to have been sponsored by embattled Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, on Monday protested at the Federal High Court premises in Abuja, calling for the removal of a Federal High Court Judge, Justice Abdul Kafarati.

They want the judge removed over allegation of bias in the handling of Ogun State PDP cases before his court and his suspected collaboration with former President Olusegun Obasanjo to perpetrate injustice against the people of the state.

The groups, Centre for Ethics, Democracy and Development (CEDAD), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and Coalition of OoduaSelf Determination Group (COSEG) called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu to investigate why all matters involving the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ogun state, always receive the “special attention” of Justice Kafarati.

They also want the CJN to investigate for the purpose of ordering a judicial review of the injunctions granted by Justice Kafarati which denied the Joju Fadairo-led faction of the party in Ogun State recognition as the legitimate executive as well as the judgment which declared the Obasanjo faction as the authentic faction of the party in the state.

They equally want the CJN to transfer and re-assign the case between the Obasanjo and Gbenga Daniel factions in the state PDP to a Federal High Court in Ogun state in line with the directive of the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court that all election matters be treated in the state they originated from.

Also speaking during the protest, the FCT coordinator for the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Mr. Adedeji Oluwole warned that there would be a repeat of the popular June 12 agitation if the corruption in the judiciary is not addressed, saying it is a threat to Nigeria’s democracy.
By Nnamdi Felix / Abuja