Katsina State High Court has fixed the 29th of November as the date of delivering judgement on a suit filed by a faction of the People’s Democratic Party in Katsina State challenging the legality of the recent conduct of the party’s congresses.
The faction led by the former Secretary to the Katsina State Government, Alhaji Mustapha Inuwa, and other PDP bigwigs is challenging the legality of the recent conduct of the party’s congresses.
Among other demands of the faction is the annulment of the election, which produces what they called “the officials that are now parading themselves as leaders of the party in the state.”
It could be recalled that another faction of the PDP in the state, led by Senator Yakubu Lado, the 2023 governorship candidate of the party, conducted party congresses, which led to the emergence of the new officials of the party from ward to state levels.
But the court, presided over by Justice Abbas Bawale, after listening to submissions by the counsel of both the plaintiff and the defendant at the hearings today Monday, adjourned the matter till Friday, November 29th, for a ruling.
Justice Bawale earlier also gave the counsel a date to determine the preliminary objection and the substantive suit in the case, prior to the adjourned date for the ruling.
Shortly after the court session, while addressing newsmen, the counsel to the PDP, which is the defendant in the suit, Mr Isaac Nwachukwu, said he presented an argument that the party congress is an internal affair.
He said, “Our argument is that party congress is an internal affair of the party; it has been ruled in many decided authorities that courts do not have jurisdiction to entertain this kind of case.
“It is an internal affair of the party and should be resolved by the party. But since the plaintiffs do not agree with that, they have come to challenge it, and we are asking the court to decline jurisdiction and refer them back to the party.
“It is not something the court should dabble into; even in a recently decided case, the court also held that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain these kinds of applications.”
Nwachukwu added that, “Meanwhile the court gave us a date to determine the preliminary objection and the substantive suit, in the legal process if the preliminary objection is decided in our favour, then there is no need going into the substantive suit. It is only when it fails that the judge can go into the substantive suit.”
On his part, the counsel to the plaintiffs, Mr Mustapha Shitu Mahuta, said he was at the court to challenge the conduct of the PDP congresses from ward to local government and state levels, which he said was done illegally.
He said: “We came before this court challenging the conduct of congresses of the PDP from state down to local government and ward levels, which was done against democratic tenets and principles and against the PDP constitution itself.
“One faction of the party led by one individual hijacked the forms and excluded other members of the party in the state from the right to participate in the process; therefore, the election was very irregular.
“Our prayers therefore are for the court to annul this sham of an election and order for fresh congresses to be conducted from ward to local government and state levels whereby all members of the party will be given a level playing field to participate.”
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