SDP faction threatens to take leadership conflict to Court of Appeal

Dissatisfied with the ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which refused to acknowledge it as the party’s official leadership, a faction of the Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) National Executive Committee (NEC) has promised to appeal the verdict.

On Friday, Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of Abuja’s Federal High Court ruled that his court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the matter brought before it by Olu Falae’s faction.

The leadership issue that has plagued the SDP since 2019 has been deemed an internal party affair, meaning the judge will not be hearing any further cases related to the matter.

Chief Supo Shonibare, the leader of the aggrieved section, told reporters that after the judge dismissed their lawsuit, their attorneys would review the ruling and file an appeal with the Court of Appeal as soon as possible.

Without a doubt, we have not yet heard the final word on this issue. We’re taking the case to the Court of Appeal for review, and he expressed optimism that the appeals court will rule in their favour.

The judge ruled that the claim could not proceed since the issue at hand was an internal problem of the Social Democratic Party.

He claimed that the plaintiffs are indeed members of the party, that the party has the power to change its constitution, and that there is an internal conflict resolution procedure.

Justice Ekwo made it clear that courts should stay out of the business of political parties.

He said, “I determine that there is no cause of action in this instance as the subject matter is internal affairs of the party.

I’m going to have to say no to this case since it doesn’t have any legs to stand on.

In 2019, the SDP, Chief Supo Shonibare, and ten others sued Professor Tunde Adeniran and eleven others in the Federal High Court in Abuja to establish who really runs the party.

Nasiru Naaba, Kelvin Damara, Saleh Dass, Cornelius Oreruan, Tunde Onokoya, Abubakar Babaiya, Hassan Adamu, Aniekwe Ikechukwu, Isaac Bello, and Mohammed Ibrahim are among the other plaintiffs who claim to be national and state executives of SDP.

The first defendant is Professor Tunde Adeniran, followed by Professor Shehu Gaban, Professor Emeka Atuma, Professor Rufai Alkali, Professor Marian Tolopari, Professor Dr. Junaid Mohammed, Senator Ebenezer Ikeyina, Senator Erin Henshaw, Senator David Umah, Senator Stanley Nnanka, Senator Joseph Achile, and finally INEC.

FHA/A/ABJ/CS/1358/2019 alleges that plaintiffs were elected at the party’s national convention on March 9, 2016, for a four-year term ending on March 8, 2020.

After Professor Tunde Adeniran and his followers seized control of the party in 2018, the incumbents argued that their terms had not yet ended because they had been appointed at the party’s 2018 national convention.

After Chief Olu Falae’s resignation in 2019, Shonibare declared himself to be the party’s acting national chairman and denied that any officials had been elected in 2018.

In addition, the plaintiffs who relied on the 2012 Constitution of the party to support their claim to office noted that neither that document nor the purportedly adopted version by Falae and others allowed for the nomination of NEC members.

They asked the judge to determine that the first eleven defendants do not constitute the SDP’s legitimate leadership.

The first, second, fourth, ninth, and eleventh defendants, all represented by Peter Nwata, argued that the second through twelfth plaintiffs lacked locus standi to bring the complaint and therefore should be dismissed.

In its response to the complaint, INEC maintained that the court lacked jurisdiction over the subject since the plaintiffs’ case had been statute-barred under Section 251 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.