Edo primary: PDP drags Justice Obile before CJN over restraining of Obaseki
Following ruling by Justice E.A. Obile of Port – Harcourt Federal High Court restraining Governor Godwin Obaseki from participating in the June 25 governorship of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the party has petitioned the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Mohammed to sanction Justice Obile for subverting court processes.
The party in a petition to the CJN, its counsel, Dakzel Longii Shamnas, also prayed that Justice Obile be advised to reassign the suit to a Judge of the Federal High Court sitting at the Abuja Division of the Court;
The PDP asked that Immediate disciplinary action be commenced against Han. Justice E.A. Obile of the Port Harcourt Division of the Federal High Court “for invidiously assuming jurisdiction and taking sides in the political conflict in Edo State with a view to disrupting the political process”
The party petitioned the Chief Justice over the pronouncement of the Pirt Harcourt division of the Federal High Court in respect of Suit No: FHC/PH/CS/69/2020 in which the PDP is the 7th defendant and Governor Obaseki, the 8th defendant.
The PDP lawyer, Shamnas, in the petition said “this petition is being forwarded to Your Lordship on behalf of the PDP and its members other than the Plaintiff who is being externally sponsored to do the hatchet job of perverting the judicial process to ensure that Governor Godwin Obaseki does to fly our Party’s flag in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Edo State.
“Your Lordship may wish to take judicial notice of the fact following apparently intractable intra-party squabble in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Godwin Obaseki recently defected to the PDP to pursue his political ambition of re-election as the Governor of Edo State for a second term of office,
“The primary election of the PDP for the forthcoming gubernatorial election has been scheduled to hold on the 25″‘ day of June 2020 in Benin City the Capital of Edo State.
PDP Governors’ Forum assures Obaseki of level playing field, accommodation
“However, the Plaintiff in the above suit at the behest of some external forces has surreptitiously filed an action at the Port Harcourt Division of the Federal High Court seeking to prevent the said Governor 0baseki from participating in the said election.
The party noted that Hon. Justice E. A. Obile did not approach the matter with circumspection, played into hands of unscrupulous politicians, notwithstanding certain legal red flags.
The PDP concluded that “the interim orders granted have the effect of disposing of this suit as the entire suit would be overtaken by events and become academic after the 25’“ day of June 2020.
“The Defendants believe that the above actions, especially the sweeping ex parte orders, are not mere errors of judgment, but coldly premeditated moves aimed at denying the Defendants fair hearing and pandering to the interest of politicians with all the devastating consequences for the polity”
