BREAKING NEWS, Judiciary
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THE Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday, November 1, suspended its hearing into motions brought by the Ahmed Makarfi faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The appeal court said its decision followed a petition filed by Biyi Poroye, a member of the PDP faction led by Ali Modu Sheriff, a former governor of Borno State on Monday, October 31.
Thus, a panel of three judges led by Jumai Sankey said that its integrity was in jeopardy. Sankey, who headed the panel, said the petition was forwarded to Zainab Bulkachuwa, president of the Court of Appeal. She said the petitioner alleged that the court, under her leadership, was prone to being compromised for financial gains.
Consequently, all the three judges on the panel withdrew their participation in the case, pending the determination of the petition by the National Judicial Council, NJC, a judicial body responsible for the investigating such matters.
Sankey said a copy of the petition was also sent to the NJC. Hence, she said her panel would return the case files to the president of the Appeal Court.
The court was scheduled to decide on the validity or otherwise of previous judgements from lower courts on the crisis within the PDP.
Acting on the order made by Justice Okon Abang of the federal high court, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, dropped Eyitayo Jegede, belonging to the Ahmed Makarfi-faction of the PDP.
The electoral body substituted Jegede’s name with that of Jimoh Ibrahim of the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the party.
Consequently, Jegede and other members of the party from the Makarfi faction made appealed to the Appeal Court demanding that it strikes out Justice Abang’s ruling.
In the meantime, the INEC had said Ibrahim would remain the candidate of the party in Ondo until a ruling by the appeal court.
— Nov 1, 2016 @ 21:10 GMT
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