THE All Progressives Congress’ National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, stated yesterday that the ruling party will not comply with the initial court verdict that suspends Dr Abdullahi Ganduje as national chairman.
He also emphasized that the party’s national chairman has not received any summons about the initial court order restraining him.
Morka, who appeared as a guest on Arise TV, confirmed that they had instead supported the recent Kano Federal High Court decision seeking for a stay of the order.
Recall that the political drama in Kano took a new turn on Wednesday when a Federal High Court presided over by Justice A.M Liman suspended Ganduje’s alleged suspension by his ward executives in the state’s Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area.
The decision was made after Ganduje filed an exparte application to enforce his fundamental right to a fair hearing.
Respondents in the application include the Nigerian Police, the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and nine additional people.
Morka maintained that it was the appropriate thing to do because those who orchestrated the suspension were not officially members of the party.
He said, “The order issued by the first court was very disturbing, for some reasons. First, the plaintiffs who purportedly filed that action are not recognized members of our party and therefore shouldn’t have the locus standi to invoke the authority of the court to make any such order.
“Secondly, every lawyer in this country is aware that from the Supreme Court up to the NJC, there is this cautiousness that judges don’t make orders that are far-reaching in effect on an exparte motion or application.
“When you see the nature of the case and observe it is likely to cause the defendant substantial exposure to ridicule and justice, you put that defendant on notice within the context of even that exparte application; so that the justice of the matter can be met.
“But this judge, in this case upheld the illegal suspension of a national chairman, did so on an ex parte application, which shouldn’t really be.
“Being a lawyer, I have a lot of respect for the court and won’t say much. But be that as it may, as I speak, that order of the Kano State High Court purportedly affirming the suspension of our national chairman has not been served on the party and the national chairman himself.
“So this conversation and every other one relating to this has really been based on media reports. In other words, we do not have legal notice of that order. So the question of how we react to it or whether we will respect it or not is out of it because we have not been served. In the meantime, this Federal Court has issued a prohibition, an order restraining the impersonators who are the plaintiffs in that matter from enforcing that suspension.
“We are right now in the stage of status quo where we were before the purported suspension of Ganduje as the national chairman. He still remains our national chairman.”
