Court declines PDP’s request to stay judgment sacking Anambra exco

• Nullifies June 10, 11 delegate elections
• APC appoints Abiodun as head of guber primary poll pane

A federal Capital Territory High Court, Maitama, yesterday, dismissed three applications filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and two others.

The applications sought to stay the June 9 judgment, sacking the party’s executive council (exco) in Anambra State, pending the determination of the appeal.

Justice Olukayode Adeniyi, in his ruling, held that the three applicants – PDP, Chief Ndubisi Nwobu and Uchenna Obiora – failed to make a case to warrant the granting of their applications that sought to stay the judgment.

Adeniyi, who frowned on the applicants for earlier denigrating the court in their reaction to the judgment, held that they did not show that the non-staying of the judgment would either render their appeals nugatory or make it impossible for the party to conduct its primaries for the forthcoming governorship election.

The judge further nullified all the activities engaged in by the party since June 9 when the judgment was delivered, including the elections it conducted on June 10 and 11 to elect a three-man ad hoc ward delegate that would participate in voting at the PDP primaries scheduled for June 26.

The judge held that the statement made on June 9 by the state secretary of PDP, Anambra, in which he disparaged the court and its judgment was an affront on the court.

He said they should not expect a court they had insulted to grant them an indulgence.

“The first applicant (PDP), which is the principal party has maintained in the face of this court that its judgment is null and void for want of jurisdiction. The same party cannot at the same time seek equitable reliefs from the same court.

“A party that has no regard for the judgment of a court and described it in derogatory terms to the whole world as shown in Exhibit C, cannot quietly return to the same court seeking equitable relief to stay the same judgment that it defied and defiled.”

The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Governor Mai Mala Buni, meanwhile, has appointed Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State as the chairman of the Primary Election Committee for the Anambra State governorship election.

The primary poll is scheduled for Saturday, June 26, 2021.

Other members of the Abiodun-led panel comprise Uba Maigari Ahmadu, Goodluck Opiah, Cathleen Oby Nwofor, Shitu Muhammed, Sylvester Imohanobe and Senator John Enoh who will serve as secretary.