Ogun PDP crisis: Supreme Court Adjourns Suit till Dec. 5

............... Strikes out Ali Modu Sheriff's name

Efforts by the pro-Honourable Oladipupo Adebutu Uche Secondus-led National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to move the Supreme Court to expeditiously hear the appeal on the lingering legal tussle in the leadership of the Ogun State Chapter of the Party on Wednesday suffered a setback following the adjournment of the suit by the apex court.

The PDP under Secondus had filed an appeal against the decision of Justice Ibrahim Buba, which endorsed the Adebayo Dayo -led Executive Committee as the authentic leadership of the party in Ogun State.

In a bid to get the decision of Justice Buba reversed, the PDP had filed an appeal at the apex court praying for an order to restore the dismissed appeal and grant a stay of execution of the judgment which formed the basis of the recognition being accorded the Dayo-led exco by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as it relates to the 2019 general election.

The grouse of the party was that since the leadership of the Ali Modu Sheriff as National Chairman of PDP had been nullified by the apex court, the Ogun State exco of the party ought to have gone down with that of Sheriff.

However, the Dayo-led Ogun State PDP Exco is of the view that neither the issue of its Exco nor the judgment affirming it was before the Supreme Court.

The Secondus group is also praying the Supreme Court to bar INEC from according recognition to the Dayo-led executive on the grounds that it had been legally dissolved by the then Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Working Committee.

But, the Dayo-led Exco is contending that it cannot be dissolved by the national leadership of the party without setting aside the judgment in its favour.

However, when the matter came up yesterday, Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour refused to hear the PDP appeal on the grounds that Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who was one of the respondents in the matter, was not served with the hearing notice.

In the desperate bid to save the situation, counsel to the Secondus group, Chief Emeka Etiaba SAN, withdrew the name of Ali Modu Sheriff in the matter but that did not stop the Supreme Court from adjourning the matter.

Although Justice Rhodes-Vivour struck out Sheriff’s name as a respondent in the suit, he nonetheless adjourned hearing in the appeal till December 5.

Legal luminary, Dr Alex Izinyon SAN, stood for Adebayo Dayo-led Ogun PDP Exco in the matter at yesterday’s proceedings.

The Dayo-led Exco that is currently recognized by INEC for participation in the 2019 general election had claimed that the Ogun State Chapter of the PDP was intact because the purported dissolution of the chapter was done in violation of a subsisting judgment of Justice Buba.

The Dayo-led Exco maintained that the dissolution was unlawful, illegal and a contempt of a lawful order and as such cannot stand in the eyes of the law.

Justice Buba delivered a final judgment in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/636/2016 on the 24th of June, 2016.

The party appealed the judgment but the appeal was dismissed by the Lagos Division of the Court  of Appeal on the 7th of May, 2017. A further attempt to relist the dismissed appeal was struck out by the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal on the 11th of July, 2018.

While the Dayo-led Exco is supported by the lawmaker representing Ogun East Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Buruji Kashamu, the other group is being spearheaded by the member representing Remo Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu.