...Ogun PDP challenges decision at S'Court
FROM TAIWO AMODU & GODWIN TSA, AbujaThe members of the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), led by Alhaji Kawu Baraje yesterday, lauded the judgment of the Appeal Court which ordered the reinstatement of the sacked National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.
The factional chairman, in a statement signed by the Publicity Secretary of the parallel National Working Committee (NWC), Eze Chukuwemeka Eze, also appealed to the judiciary to grant its prayers to be accorded recognition as the authentic leadership of the party and send the Bamanga Tukur-led NWC packing.
Justice Elvis Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja in a recent judgment, had restrained the Kawu Baraje group from parading itself as the authentic leadership of the party and further declared the party NWC under Bamanga Tukur as the duly constituted national executive of the party.
Baraje, in the statement, called on the judiciary to give judgment in favour of the group, insisting that the dissolution of the Bamanga Tukur leadership was in the best interest of the party.
However, barely 24 hours after the Court of Appeal ordered the reinstatement of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Ogun State chapter of the p arty has filed an appeal at the supreme Court asking it to reverse the judgment of the appellate court.
In addition, it further asked the apex court to stay the execution of the said judgment pending the final determination of the appeal.
In a notice of appeal filed yesterday, the party raised four grounds of appeal and argued that the appellate court erred in law when it overturned and set aside the January 11 judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, sacking Oyinlola.
The appellate court held among others yesterday, that the order which the Ogun PDP sought to be enforced in the order, made in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/282/2012 was made in breach of the 1st defendant's (Oyinlola's) right to fair hearing because he was not a party to that action in which the order was made.
In the appeal filed for the party by Adebayo Dayo and Semiu Sodipo, state's chairman and secretary respectively, the apellant argued that the Court of Apeal failed, in its judgment yesterday, to realise that it lacked the jurisdiction to invalidate/nullify the order made by Justice Abdulkadir Abdulkafarati in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/282/2012 "when there was no appeal against that order before it."
The appellant argued that, in reaching its decision, the appellate court went on a voyage of discovery because there was no appeal or valid complaint against that order before it in the appeal.
The Ogun PDP argued that the order made by Justice Abdulkafarati of the the Federal High Court was made within the disciplinary jurisdiction of the court in order to restore its ability to deal with the substantive issues raised in the case.
It stated that the order was also meant as a punishment for breach of its interlocutory order by respondents in the case, and in that context, was a final order in respect of which Oyinlola could have appealed as an interested party (even though not a party to the action) since the order tangentially affected his interests as a nominee of the invalid South West congress that was nullified by that order.
"The Court of Appeal (Abuja Division) went beyond the remit of its powers under the Constitution and the Court of Appeal Act when it decided to sit on appeal over the order made in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/282/2012 when the appeal filed against the said order had been withdrawn and struck out by the Lagos Division of the court," the appellant argued.
The appellant also contend that the appellate court misdirected itself on the facts when it found that there were other cases filed to enforce the order made in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/282/2012 and that this rendered the current action to enforce the said order an abuse of process.
It stated that the court's finding was contrary to the evidence on the record before it and could only have been a product of speculation.
The Ogun PDP also faulted the appellate court on the ground that it erred in law when it held that the suit was an abuse of process. It argued there was no evidence before the court that there were other actions brought between the same parties.
The appellant argued that the lower court erred in law when it found that Oyinlola had filed an application for stay of the order (made in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/282/2013) at Court of Appeal Lagos Division when the suit to enforce the said order was filed and prosecuted.
It argued that the decision of the appellate court on that issue was "a perverse finding of fact as it was based on no evidence and was in fact contrary to the evidence admitted by the 1st defendant (Oyinlola) in the record before the Court of Appeal.
The post Oyinlola: Dissolve PDP NWC –Baraje (http://sunnewsonline.com/new/national/oyinlola-dissolve-pdp-nwc-baraje/) appeared first on The Sun News (http://sunnewsonline.com/new).