Ondo Election: South-West PDP Loyal to Ali Modu-Sheriff Head to Supreme Court

The states executives of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-west loyal to the Ali Modu-Sherrif’s faction have filed an application at the Supreme Court to stop the newly constituted panel of the Court of Appeal from hearing appeals relating to the party’s nomination of candidate for the Ondo State governorship election.They are also asking the Court of Appeal in Abuja to reverse the decision by its President, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, to constitute a fresh panel to hear these appeals according to ThisDay.

In a motion filed yesterday by members of state executives of the PDP in the six South-west states loyal to Ali Modu-Sheriff and led by Biyi Poroye, the factional Chairman of the Ondo State PDP, they also asked the court to disband the new appeal court’s panel comprising Justices Ibrahim Salauwa, Ignatius Igwe Aguba, and George Mbaba.

They said the new panel was allegedly set up in breach of their right to fair hearing guaranteed under Section 36 of the constitution.

Poroye and others equally prayed the court to order the return of the case files relating to the appeals and the application for leave to appeal as an interested party (against the decision of the Federal High Court of October 14 2016 in suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/395/2016) – filed by Eyitayo Jegede (factional PDP candidate of the state PDP“to the Registry of the Court of Appeal to take its normal course and turn in the docket of the court.”

The affected appeals are: CA/A/551/2016 filed by Ahmed Makarfi and Ben Obi against Poroye and 10 others and CA/A/551A/2016 filed by Clement Faboyede and another against 10 others; CA/A551B/2016 filed by the PDP against Poroye and 9 others and CA/A/551C/2016 filed by Jegede against Poroye and 10 others.

They argued that not only did the President of the Court of Appeal act without hearing from them, the case, being a pre-election matter, did not warrant any urgency to require the constitution of a special panel.

They added that those who filed the appeals against the June 29 and October 14, 2016 decisions of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, were not parties in the cases leading to the decisions.