By Rhoda Azeez
The Federal High Court in Port Harcourt has set a hearing date of August 21 to rule on the Peoples Democratic Party’s legal representation in a lawsuit that the BOOT Party filed against Martin Amaewhule and twenty-five other MPs. The legality of Martin Amaewhule and twenty-five of his colleagues’ status as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and PDP following their defection to the All Progressive Congress was contested by BOOT Party members in a lawsuit. In an attempt to settle the legal representation dispute, PDP National Legal Advisor Kamaldeen Ajibade sought the court to exclude Joshua Musa, who had announced the state legal adviser’s appearance, during the hearing that was resumed on Wednesday.
Ajibade further requested that the court disregard all of the PDP’s filings and permit him to represent the party. He did this by citing an affidavit of joinder that Musa had submitted, particularly paragraph 2, in which the deponent, Kingsley Chukwu, clarified that he had received the national’s permission to join the case.
The PDP National Legal Advisor contended that the two rulings from a Federal High Court, as reported by MUSA, did not take away from him as the National Legal Advisor’s exclusive authority to manage the party’s legal matters; rather, they only addressed articles 42 of the party constitution and urged the court to refuse to acknowledge MUSA’s appearance at the request of the state legal adviser.
However, Musa urged the court to reject each and every argument put up by Kamaldeen Ajibade, the PDP National Legal Adviser, citing paragraph 2 of his affidavit as proof of the joinder. Musa further contended that the PDP National Legal Adviser’s exhibits PDP 1 and 2 are worthless, unsigned documents that were created, and he urged the court to reject the latter’s claim to be the party’s representative in the lawsuit.
After hearing from the parties’ attorneys, the presiding judge, Justice E.O. Obele, postponed the decision of who might properly represent the PDP in the lawsuit and be included in the substantive suit until August 21. Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Ajibade asserted that the PDP national leadership is aware that Martin Amaewhule and twenty-five other members have defected and lost their seats, citing clear legal guidelines on who can represent political matters in court.
“Our contention is that there is only one PDP, and all of the defection issues you are discussing were sponsored by the national headquarters,” he said. Here at Rivers State, there isn’t a party that is able to support a candidate.
Thus, the PDP is the rightful owner of the seats in question, since INEC only registered one PDP. Therefore, PDP Rivers lacks the authority to object to the Court’s ruling through a representation.The argument here focuses on the fact that they are discussing how unaware they are of the defection. The PDP National, meanwhile, holds that Martin Amaewhule and the others lost their seats as a result of their defection. Therefore, the legal counsel in Rivers State is stating something that is not the national headquarters’ view by claiming differently.
According to our correspondent, the court has also postponed hearing the lawsuit that state residents from the Civil Society Organisation filed against the governor, Amaewhuele, and his associates until August 21.