The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday said Justice Adeniyi Ademola is not competent to rule that the 37 PDP House of Representatives members that defected to APC should vacate their seats because the issue of whether or not they can defect was not before him.
Reacting to the ruling through its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, APC said it will appeal the ruling, noting that the perpetual injunction granted by Justice Ademola, restraining the lawmakers from participating in motions and debates is unconstitutional.
Mohammed argued that the injunction defeats the very purpose for which the members were elected into the House, adding that the Judge’s “unsolicited comments were clearly
gregarious, unnecessary, superfluous and has no foundation in law or fact, hence should be ignored.
The opposition party therefore, called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar, to act urgently to sanction Justice Ademola for engaging in mischief that could bring the bench into disrepute.
”If this case had been issued a day later than Monday, we would have said the Judge was caught in the web of April Fool! Alas, he indeed made the ruling on Monday, hence the need for us to take it very seriously for several reasons.
”Firstly, the question whether the House of Representatives members should vacate their seats was not a question before Justice Ademola for determination. The only question for him to determine was whether the APC members, with their numerical strength at that time, had the right to change the House leadership such as the Majority Leader, Chief Whip and their deputies. So Justice Ademola had no business commenting on seats being vacated.
”Secondly, it is highly unprofessional and unethical for one Judge to delve into a matter that is subjudice in another court. A Judge should not make comments on matters being litigated in another court.
“The question of seats being vacated or otherwise is being heard by Justice Ahmed Mohammed in the Federal High Court in Abuja who, on 29 March 2014, said the issue was still live before him and is not ripe for Judgment,” the party said
APC recalled the alarm it raised in a statement on Dec. 14th 2013, that the PDP is shopping for a pliant Judge who will be heavily induced to do its bidding in the case over the defections from the ruling party to the APC.
In that statement, the main opposition party warned against any attempt by the PDP and the Presidency to turn back the hands of the clock as far as the cleaning up of the judiciary is concerned, by inducing a servile and disreputable Judge to do the duo’s bidding.
Quoting from that statement, APC said: ”We recognize the efforts of the present CJN to sanitize the Judiciary since she assumed the mantle of leadership but she should not allow any black leg to reverse the gains that have been recorded on the altar of unmitigated avarice. This is because if that happens, Nigerians will hold the Judiciary vicariously liable for the catastrophic consequences that may follow.”
Noting that its alarm has now proven to be prescient, the party wondered whether there was any link between what is clearly an exercise in judicial rascality and President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent boast in Kwara that the PDP would soon retrieve its ‘stolen’ mandate from those who defected from the PDP to the APC.
”That presidential boast raises the following questions: What did the President know and when did he know it? Was this judgement procured by the PDP for a price, in which case the President’s statement amounted to a Freudian Slip? Are we to expect more of this?
”It is necessary to unravel this so the PDP and the presidency, in their desperation, will not paint the judiciary with their brush of failure and crash our democracy,” it said.
The party urged its supporters not to panic as the judgement was clearly intended to cause mischief, adding however that the plan by the PDP and the Presidency has fallen like a pack of cards!
