Lagos lawyer, Theodore Okey Ezeobi, Jnr., has filed a notice of preliminary objection at the Federal High Court, Abuja, challenging the competence and jurisdiction of the court to hear the case instituted by Chief Callistus Okafor and others against the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Labour Party (LP), led by Julius Abure, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The applicant is asking the court to declare (as per the provisions of Order 29, of the Federal High Court, civil procedure, Rules 2019) that the Federal High Court lacks competence and jurisdiction to entertain the suit, as currently filed and exchanged between parties.

He wants the court to strike out the originating summons and reliefs, including all processes and proceedings purportedly filed, argued and exchanged between parties, or howsoever relating to it.

The reason for his prayers, he said, “is because the cause of action (the primary claim before the court) found upon a dispute, over the legality of the leadership of the LP, an incorporated trustee under Part C of CAMA, can only be resolved by recourse to LP Constitution, to the exclusion of anything else, including the CAMA.”

According to him, the suit is fundamentally in breach of Section 251 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Section 7 of the Federal High Court Act.

“In effect, it is absolutely not within the jurisdictional competence of the Federal High Court, and so brought without locus, incompetent, ultra vire, an abuse of court process, and null and void.”

Jurisdiction is the bedrock of adjudication. They are inseparable,” he prayed.

Explaining his legal capacity to bring the objection, the applicant cited the case of Farquharson v. Morgan, where the court held that objection to jurisdiction can be raised, and that it is immaterial by what means, and by whom, it is so raised.

The matter, which is before Justice Inyang Ekwo, is fixed for June 15, 2022.

The grounds for the plaintiff’s preliminary objection are that: “It is settled by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, in Gabriel Madukolu & Ors Vs. Johnson Nkemdilim (1962) 1 All NLR 587 that the competence of a court depends entirely on whether the subject matter of the case is within its jurisdiction, and that no feature in the case prevents the court from exercising jurisdiction, and further that, the case is brought before the court by due process of law.

“It is settled law that it is the Constitution or statute or law that creates the court, and the cause of action, as can be distilled from the claims and reliefs in the originating process (in this instance, the plaintiff’s originating summons), that determines the jurisdiction of the court.

“Following the law on the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, as contained in Section 251 of the Constitution, which is in pari-materia with Part 11, Section 7 of the Federal High Court Act, there is nothing in the entire body of the plaintiff’s originating summons, culminating in his cause of action, claims and reliefs, or howsoever, that is in line and/or connected with, or arose from: (a) the operation of the CAMA or any other enactment replacing the Act, or regulating operation of companies incorporated under the CAMA, or (b) affecting the validity of any executive or administrative action or decision by the Federal Government or any of its agencies (including INEC, the fourth defendant herein).”