A High Court sitting in Asaba has struck out a suit seeking to nullify the congresses of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Delta State.
The APC congresses cut across the wards, local government and state.
The suit was filed by a group backed by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN), Chief Great Ogboru, and Hon Victor Ochei, challenging the legality and constitutionality of the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee, CECPC.
In a brief judgment on Wednesday, the Presiding Judge, Justice G. B. Briki-Okolosi noted amongst others, that the claimants’ action is non-justiciable as it is an intra-party matter.
Briki-Okolosi also held that the matter is incurably defective having been commenced by means of Originating Summons instead of Writ of Summons, as the issues raised are manifestly contentious.
He said, “Court would have ordinarily asked the Plaintiff to go and refile their pleadings but the matter is not justiciable as it is an internal affair of the Political Party (APC)”. He, therefore, proceeded to strike out the case.
“The anti-Buni group had earlier lost a similar action in Suit No. A/145/21 also before the Delta State High Court in Asaba wherein they had pointedly asked the Court to declare the CECPC as illegal and unconstitutional in their persistent bid to throw the APC nationally into what the Delta State Chairman of the Party, Prophet Jones Erue described as “premeditated chaos by permanent troublemakers and confusionists who are constantly working with outsiders to destroy the APC for dirty profit.”
Commenting on the decision of the Court, a prominent APC youth leader and lawyer, Mr Matthew Omonade, a layer, noted that “In a space of two months, the distractors of APC and their co-travellers have been floored at the Delta State High Court.
He noted further that the position of the Court is that “The case of the plaintiff is non-justiciable and lacks merit. The action is non-justiciable and incurably incompetent. It was emphatically reechoed that the substratum of the matter bothers on the internal affairs of the party.”
Following Wednesday’s ruling, the recently elected executives of the Delta State APC led by the State Chairman-elect, Elder Omeni Sobotie remains in great standing in law and enjoys popular support of a great majority of the party’s membership in the state that is fiercely loyal to the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.
