OGI PDP Guber Candidate: Wada Floors Echocho

An Abuja High Court presided over by Justice Sunday Aladetoyinbo on Monday upheld the preliminary objection filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its flag bearer for the forthcoming governorship election in Kogi state, Capt. Idris Wada challenging the competence of a suit filed by Alhaji Isah Jibrin, also known as Echocho, challenging the emergence of Wada as the party’s flag bearer and the nullification of an earlier governorship primary where he, Jibrin, had emerged as the winner.

The court struck out Jibrin’s suit for lack of jurisdiction to meddle in a matter that is squarely a Kogi state affair. Only PDP and Capt Idris Wada were sued and this robbed the court of the jurisdiction to wade into the matter.

It agreed with the position of both the party and its flag bearer that the Abuja court has no jurisdiction to sit over the matter and struck it out.

The court specifically noted that the issue which Isah is complaining about, which is the 23rd September primary election of the party through which Wada emerged, took place in Lokoja and not in Abuja and therefore held that it does not have territorial jurisdiction to entertain the matter. It also upheld the objections of the PDP and Capt Wada that the suit is an abuse of court process.

Justice Aladetoyinbo also held that the failure of Isah to join the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, further weakened his case, noting that he cannot make an order against a party that was not cited in the suit.

Isah had on 25 October, through his counsel Paul Erokoro, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, filed the motion challenging his substitution by the PDP after he was defeated by Wada at the fresh special state congress held in Lokoja on 23 September following a new guideline issued by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party in five states where governorship elections are to be held.

He had contended that having been validly and duly nominated as the PDP candidate in January and his name submitted to INEC, his candidature cannot be vitiated by the postponement of the election from the initial date of April 26, 2011 to December 3, 2011.

He had further argued that under section 33 of the Electoral Act 2010, the PDP cannot submit any other governorship candidate to INEC when he is neither dead nor withdrawn his candidature. Besides seeking a declaration that the submission of Wada’s name for the Kogi State 2011 governorship election is unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect whatsoever, Isah asked for a perpetual injunction restraining the PDP from submitting any other name apart from his to INEC as its candidate for the Kogi State Governorship Election of 3rd December, 2011.

At the resumed hearing of the matter counsel to the PDP Olusola Oke, while moving his objection, told the court that it cannot entertain the matter as all the actions being complained about took place in Lokoja, Kogi State.

Counsel to Wada, Chief Chris Uche, also a senior advocate of Nigeria, had in his submissions argued that they have five grounds on which they are challenging the court’s territorial jurisdiction, adding that it is irrelevant to say that the PDP resides within the jurisdiction of the court.

He also pointed out that the case is an abuse of court process as a similar case was filed by Umar Lawal, one of the sponsors of Isah, while Isah had filed an application to be joined as a party in the suit before a Federal High Court siting in Abuja.

“It a gross abuse of the court process for them to have various cases here and there, it amounts to forum shopping. The plaintiff is just acting as a spoiler as his time has come and gone he cannot force an unwilling party to sponsor him. Moreover, he did not exhaust the internal remedies before coming to court. The subject matter of the suit is an internal affair of a political party which no court can assume jurisdiction to adjudicate on,” the senior lawyer argued.

Citing article 16 of the PDP Electoral guidelines to back his arguments, Chief Uche pointed out that article 16 says that any person that is aggrieved by the outcome of the party’s guidelines must appeal to the appeal panel set up by the PDP, adding that there is an undertaking signed by the plaintiff that he would accept the outcome of the primaries which he subjected himself to. If he had won the primary of September 23rd he would not be in court now.

With this decision, Capt Wada’s candidacy has been strengthened ahead of the December poll which promises to be vigorously contested by other political parties like Action Congress of Nigeria, parading the state’s former governor, Abubakar Audu and others.

By Nnamdi Felix / Abuja