The leaders of the New Peoples Democratic Party have asked an Abuja Federal High Court to dismiss a suit in which the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur faction of the PDP sought to restrain them from parading themselves as the national executive members of the party.
The lawyers of the New PDP maintained that the dispute was an internal affair of the party, and as a result, the court had no jurisdiction to hear and determine it.
The suit was filed before the Abuja FHC by PDP, Tukur and the national officers of the party after the respondents – Abubakar Baraje, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Sam Jaja and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar formed the breakaway faction of the party on August 31, 2013.
The Independent National Electoral Commission was equally joined among the defendants, as the Tukur faction asked the court to order the electoral commission to refrain from engaging in any business with the New PDP.
The Tukur faction was insisting that the Baraje group was not elected, and as a result, asked the court to stop them from acting as the PDP executive.
However, at a hearing in the matter on Monday, the New PDP maintained that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the matter.
Counsel to the leaders of the New PDP, Ahmed Raji, SAN, Robert Clarke, SAN, and E. R. Emukpoeruo, in their preliminary objections, insisted that the matter was an internal affair of the PDP, which was beyond the jurisdiction of the court.
They also argued that the suit should not have been filed before a FHC, since it did not complain about the action of any agency of the Federal Government.
"I urge the court to decline jurisdiction in this matter because it bothers on the domestic affairs of a political party which is not justiciable.
"All they are asking the court to determine is who are the elected leaders of the PDP," Raji contended.
He maintained that the party was in the best position to resolve the dispute through relevant internal organs.
Clarke insisted that the suit was not competent enough to be brought before the court.
He urged the court to "throw away the case for lack of competence for no effectual order or orders can be made by this court in relation to the suit."
In the same vein, Emukpoeruo, argued that the suit was an abuse of the court process, as the Tukur-led PDP had also filed a similar, pending case before the Lagos FHC.
"In the Lagos suit, PDP is the 4th plaintiff and in this case PDP is the 1st plaintiff, so it is misleading to say PDP did not sue in Lagos," he said.
But counsel to the Tukur-led PDP, Tochukwu Onwugbufor, SAN, insisted that the court had the powers to hear the suit.
He stressed that the court had the powers to interpret provisions of the 1999 Constitution, the Electoral Act and the PDP constitution, which were relevant to the determination of the dispute.
"We are seeking your Lordship's interpretation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act and the PDP constitution," Onwugbufor said.
He refuted the defendants' claim that the suit was an abuse of the court process.
The presiding judge, Justice Elvis Chukwu, adjourned the matter for judgment.
However, the date for the judgment was not disclosed.
Justice Chukwu said the date would be communicated to the parties.
Meanwhile, a suit filed before the court by one of the factional governorship candidates of the PDP in Anambra State, Tony Nwoye, has been struck out.
The development followed the withdrawal of the suit by the plaintiff.
Nwoye had asked the court to order INEC and PDP to recognise him as the party's candidate for the forthcoming poll.
Nwoye filed the suit after a Port Harcourt FHC disqualified him from contesting the election while affirming Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu as the PDP candidate.
The development prompted Ukachukwu to ask the Abuja FHC to join him as a party in the suit.
Before the withdrawal of the suit, the court had directed the rival PDP candidates to address it on the implications of the Port Harcourt FHC judgment.
