WITH THESE SENIOR ADVOCATES, IS PDP NOT GOING DOWN THE DRAIN? APC office address stalls PDP suit against defected govs February 6, 2014 by Ihuoma Chiedozie3 Confusion over the address of the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress on Thursday stalled hearing in a suit in which the Peoples Democratic Party asked an Abuja Federal High Court for the sacking of five governors who defected to the party. The five governors – Alhaji Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Rabiu Kwakwanso (Kano) and Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara) – were not represented in court at the commencement of proceedings in the suit on January 27, when Justice Gabriel Kolawole fixed Thursday, February 6, for hearing. The judge directed that the hearing notice should be pasted at the national secretariat of the APC as a means of substituted service on the five governors, in addition to its advertisement in two national dailies. Although the five governors were represented by lawyers when the suit came up on Thursday, the court could not hear the matter as a result of separate motions in which counsel to Amaechi and Ahmed challenged the hearing notice served on them. The issue in contention was the address of the national secretariat of the APC. The order issued by Justice Kolawole for service of the hearing notice on the governors indicated No. 6 Guinea Bissau Street, Wuse Zone 6, as the address of the APC national secretariat, but the service was done at a different address – No. 40 Blantyre Street in Wuse 2. Although counsel to the governors insisted that the hearing notice should have been pasted at No. 6 Guinea Bissau Street, Wuse Zone 6, as stipulated in the court order, PDP lawyer, Dr. Alex Izinyon, SAN, informed the court that APC had relocated its office to No. 40 Blantyre Street, Wuse 2. Izinyon explained that the court bailiff, who executed the service, initially called at No. 6 Guinea Bissau Street, Wuse Zone 6 – APC’s address as at the time the court gave the order – only to see a notice on the gate which explained that the party had moved shop to No. 40 Blantyre Street, Wuse 2. As a result of the development, according to Izinyon, the bailiff proceeded to the new address to paste the notice. The PDP lawyer said, “There was an order that fresh hearing notice be served on the defendants – we have complied with that and that is why they are all here this morning. “The 3rd and 6th defendants (Amaechi and Ahmed) served us this morning with a motion seeking to set aside the purported service of the originating summons on them. “What they are complaining about is that the order which mentioned where the service should be done was not complied with – they are saying that the service was done in a different place. That is their grievance. “The bailiff said on getting to No. 6 Guinea Bissau Street, Wuse Zone 6, he saw a notice which said that they (APC) have moved to No. 40 Blantyre Street, Wuse 2 and he served them there. “It is too early for controversies – the bailiff was only doing his job.” Counsel to Amaechi, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, stressed that his client was challenging the “purported” service of the hearing notice. “I filed a motion, our position is clear on what the law says,” he said, while asking the court to set aside the service. Counsel to the other governors – John Bayeshea, SAN, for Nyako, Awa Kalu, SAN, for Wamako, Yusuf Ali, SAN, for Kwankwaso, and Akin Olujinmi, SAN, for Ahmed, toed the same line with Fagbemi. Nyako’s lawyer, Bayeshea, informed the court that he only made an appearance to protest the service of the hearing notice. “I am not aware of what Dr. Izinyon is talking about – our own position is that we have not been served, actually,” he said. In a bid to immediately resolve the problem, Izinyon asked the court for permission to serve the notice afresh on the defendants in the courtroom. Izinyon said, “I will not indulge the defendants by filing a counter-affidavit in response to this motion – since they are claiming that they have not been served we can serve them here in court. “And if they are insisting that we go back to the old address (No. 6 Guinea Bissau Street, Wuse Zone 6) we can go back and see whether the interest of justice will be served if we go to an address where they are no longer there.” Continuing, he noted that the defected governors’ lawyers are hiding the address of the APC national secretariat. “They don’t want to admit that they have moved and they don’t even want to tell us where they are. “Even in the motion that has been served on us they did not disclose their address,” he pointed out. Following Izinyon’s request to serve the notice afresh in the courtroom, Justice Kolawole asked the governors’ lawyers if they are willing and ready to receive the notice on behalf of their clients. All of them refused. The PDP lawyer then applied for a date to respond to the motion filed by the governors to challenge the service of the hearing notice. Izinyon also informed the court that he would serve the notice afresh at the old address of the APC national secretariat. “We will go back to the old address that we know. “There are many ways to watch a masquerade dance. What matters is at the end of the day they will come back here,” he said. In a short ruling afterwards, Justice Kolawole adjourned to February 24 for report of the fresh service on the defendants, and also to enable PDP respond to the governors’ motion challenging the service. Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission, which was joined as a defendant in the suit, Abdulaziz Sani, had explained that the commission had “no issues with service.” In the suit, PDP had asked the Abuja FHC to sack the five governors on the grounds that by their defection, they had forfeited their offices to the party, on which platform they were elected. In the event that the governors are sacked from office, PDP wants the court to order the deputy governors or speakers of their state Houses of Assembly to assume their positions. PDP, in the same vein, asked the court to make an order mandating/directing the Houses of Assembly of Adamawa, Rivers, Sokoto, Kano and Kwara states to commence impeachment proceedings against the governors.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Feb 2014 22:29:30 +0000
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