Dokpesi Political Family Hits Anyanwu describes stay of execution as absurdity

*Ask NEC,BOT to uphold Anyanwu’s sack

By Andrew Oota

The political family of former Daar Communications owner, late High Chief Raymond Dokpesi known as D-37 has said the Appeal Court judgement that sacked Senator Samuel Anyanwu as National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic party was declarative,therefore cannot be stayed in execution .

The D-37 described the purported stay of execution order by the court of Appeal Abuja as an absurdity ,it says further that Senator Anyanwu’s claim of procuring any stay of execution was disturbing , vexatious and plain contempt of the Nigerian judicial procedures.

In a press statement signed by chairman of D-37 and Secretary ,Senator Victor Kassim Oyofo and Alex Ter Adum respectively the group called on the Board of Trustees of the PDP (BOT),the National Working Committee (NEC) and the PDP Governors Forum to save the image of the party by obeying the declarative judgement of the Appeal Court in Enugu which sacked Anyanwu and refrained him from parading himself as National Secretary of the PDP.

According to the statement, “our attention has just been drawn to the fact that the erstwhile legally ousted National Secretary of the PDP Senator Samuel Anyanwu who lost his appeal at the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division last December against the declaratory judgement of the Federal High Court, Enugu Division affirming RT. Hon. Udeh Okoye as the substantive National Secretary of the PDP, today resumed at the PDP National Secretariat as incumbent National Secretary. The report suggests that Sen. Samuel Anyanwu brandished a purported stay of execution against the declaratory judgement of the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division from the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division as the basis for his illegal action.

“We find this news disturbing, vexatious and contemptuous of the clear and unambiguous orders of the court; and the purported stay of execution strange and a gross violation and abuse of the court procedure”.

The D-37 argued that from the established jurisprudence of Nigerian law, a stay of execution cannot be granted with respect to a declaratory judgement. The best a litigant can do is to obtain an injunction, even at that it cannot be so whimsically granted.

“A stay cannot be granted with respect to a declaratory judgement because the judgement is not executory against the defendant. A declaratory judgement is only a restatement or declaration of an inherent or due right with no executory consequences against the defendant. So no court can forestall an inherent right or deliberately seek to prevent a litigant from enjoying the fruit of his inherent right declared by the court without executory consequences against the defendant.

“We therefore, find it absurd, that the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal is purported to have granted a stay of execution on the declaratory judgement of the Enugu Division of the same court affirming the declatory judgement of the Federal High Court, Enugu Division, which had declared Rt. Hon. Udeh Okoye as the substantive National Secretary of the PDP.

“We wish to state without equivocation or any scintilla of doubt, that in as much as, a stay of execution is a discretionary power of the court, another Division of the Court of Appeal cannot purport to grant a stay of execution on a declaratory judgment, simply because an appeal is pending at the Supreme Court, except the judgement is executory.

“This is because a declaratory judgment is a final judgment and order of the court that is not executory in nature.

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“It is a judgment or a final order of the court that only declares a legal right, relationship, or situation. It is complete in itself and does not order anyone to do anything.

“A declaratory judgment cannot be enforced by execution.
The only remedy for a party dissatisfied with a declaratory judgment is to apply for an injunction.
An injunction can restrain the successful defendant from acting under the judgment until the appeal is determined.
If a party fails to comply with a declaratory judgment, the party in whose favor the judgment was made can commence fresh proceedings to enforce it.

“Where the Supreme Court of Nigeria succinctly laid down the applicable principles with respect to whether or not a declaratory judgement can be stayed. The Court held thus:

“(1) Executory judgements declare the rights of parties in a case and further proceeds to order the defendant to act in a particular way, e.g. to pay damages or refrain from interfering with the plaintiffs rights, such order being enforceable by execution if disobeyed.

“(2) Declaratory judgements on the other hand, are judgements that merely proclaim the existence of a legal relationship and do not contain any order which may be enforced against the defendant.

“(3) A declaratory judgement may be the ground of subsequent proceedings in which the right so declared in the prior proceedings having been violated, receives enforcement but in the meantime there is no enforcement or claim to it.

“(4) Until subsequent proceedings have been taken on a declaratory judgement following its violation or threatened violation and the right declared in the judgement receives enforcement or is given legal sanction for its violation, there cannot be a stay of execution of the declaratory judgement because prior to the subsequent proceedings it merely proclaims the existence of a legal relationship and does not contain any order which may be enforced against the defendant.

“(5) The expression “with liberty to apply” (for a stay of execution of a declaratory judgement or for an injunction to restrain violation of the declaratory orders therein) when a declaratory judgement carries it or when it is implied in the judgement is no more than a clear warning to a defendant against whom a declaratory order is made that the order is a ground of a subsequent proceeding in which the right declared by the judgement if violated will receive enforcement; the expression cannot convert a declaratory judgement into an executory judgement capable of enforcement and a proper subject of a stay of execution.

“(6) Orders 1-3 in the judgement of the trial Judge are evidently declaratory judgements or orders in that each of them merely proclaim legal situations or primary rights ante litem vis-a-vis the first and second plaintiffs on the one hand and the defendants on the other hand with respect to the third plaintiff. None of these three orders contains any order which may be enforced against any of the defendants and therefore a stay of execution will not lie in respect of any of them.

“This is the clear position of the law as adumbrated by the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Therefore there cannot be a stay of execution of a declaratory judgment, as there cannot be any execution of a declaratory order.

“We therefore call on the RT. Hon. Udeh Okoye , the National Working Committee (NWC), National Executive Committee (NEC) and the Board of Trustees (BoT) as well as the teeming members of the party not to be hoodwinked by the antics of Sen. Samuel Anyanwu by allowing him to usurp the status quo as at December 2024.

“We particularly, call on RT. Hon. Udeh Okoye to activate the machinery for his dutiful resumption of duty as substantive National Secretary of the PDP and the full activation of the committal proceedings for contempt of court against Sen. Samuel Anyanwu who has been legally ousted from his previous position as National Secretary and refrained from so parading as such”.