THE Supreme Court on Thursday, May 4, fixed May 25, to hear application for the withdrawal of appeal filed against Ali Sheriff, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Ahmed Makarfi, chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the PDP, had approached the apex court to challenge the affirmation of Sheriff as the PDP national chairman.

Justice Dattijo Mohammed fixed the date after counsel to parties regularised their various court processes. The two factions are laying claims to the national leadership of the party.

The tussle later took parties to the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt division where Sheriff was affirmed as the authentic national chairman of the party.

Dissatisfied with the appellate court’s decision, the Makarfi-led faction approached the apex court seeking the upturning of the decision of the lower court.

However, Lateef Fagbemi, counsel to the first respondent (PDP) had challenged the ground upon which the Makarfi-faction appealed against the decision of the lower court.

His ground was that by virtue of the judgment of the Appeal Court, Makarfi no longer had any right to enter an appeal in the name of the party without Sheriff’s consent.

“The issue is simple; the party is not interested in appealing against the national chairman of the party, so, we shall be withdrawing the pending appeal.

“So far, the judgment has not been set aside and no order for stay of execution has been obtained by Makarfi-led group.

“There is a judgment at the Court of Appeal that recognised Sheriff as the authentic chairman of the party’’, he said.

Supporting the argument canvassed by Fagbemi, Akin Olujimi, counsel to Sherriff, said the court should decide the motion for withdrawal filed by the PDP before entertaining any other appeals.

On his part, Wole Olanipekun, counsel to Makarfi submitted that the court reserved the right to approach the case from any direction.

According to him, the stage is now set for the case to kick-off as all the processes have been turned in.

He also said counsel to parties must reserve their energies by not making attempts to enter into the substantive matter.

—  May 15, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT