Tobi Soniyi in Abuja
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Ferdinand Orbih, has said there is no court order stopping the Peoples Democratic Party from holding its national convention billed to take in Port-Harcourt.
Justice Okon Abang had last week declared the Ahmed-Markafi led-caretaker committee of the party illegal and conferred recognition on Ali Modu Sheriff faction as the authentic exco of the party.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, Orbih warned against mis-interpreting the judgment of the Federal High Court.
He said that the Federal High Court in Abuja never restrained the PDP from holding its forthcoming national convention in Rivers State.
While ruling on the PDP leadership crisis suit last Thursday, Justice Abang adjourned a pending application that sought to stop the convention.
Justice Abang had said: “This suit is adjourned till August 15, to
rule on applications seeking to stop the National Convention of the
Party scheduled for August 17 in Port Harcourt as well as the one by
other Executives of the Makarfi-led Committee seeking to join in the
matter.”
Speaking on the matter, Orbih said: “The point must be made very
clearly that it is not true that the Honourable Justice Okon Abang
stopped the forthcoming Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) convention
scheduled to hold in Port-Harcourt on August 17, 2016.
“What is true is that there is an application filed by the plaintiffs seeking to stop that convention. It will interest you to note that the application is still pending; it has not even been argued before the
learned trial judge.
“So, there is no way a judge can give a decision on a motion that has
not yet been argued before him. So, it is good to disabuse the minds
of the public that no such thing happened.”
Orbih also said that the judge did not set aside the judgment of the Port-Harcourt Division of the Federal High Court which conferred recognition on the Makarfi caretaker committee.
He said: “Well, what the Port-Harcourt division of the High Court decided was that the convention that was held in Port-Harcourt wherein
the Ali Modu Sherriff National Executive Committee of the PDP was
dissolved and the Ahmed Markafi-led caretaker committee was set up by
the PDP, was validly held and conducted and that everything done in
that convention was in order.
Further details later
