Political activities in the National Secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC have been paralysed following the suspension of its National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole by a FCT High Court, Daily Trust reports.
One of our correspondents who visited the office of embattled party Chief at about 12:05pm reports that workers in the office did not show up at their duty post – a development that came after scores of security operatives besieged the Secretariat to enforce the judgment of the court.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Kano on Thursday, presided over by Justice Lewis Allagoa ordered the status quo be maintained in the matter regarding the suspension of Oshiomhole.
The party chief, who had earlier called reporters for a press briefing at his private residence in Aso Drive, Abuja presented the judgement to journalists through his Chief Press Secretary, Simon Egbebulum and aborted the scheduled briefing.
But in a swift reaction by the National Vice Chairman (North East), Mustapha Salihu during a press conference at the party’s National Secretariat, argued that two courts of coordinate jurisdiction cannot sit on the same matter.
He said, “First of all, I want to be very brief because we have a case in court and I am a plaintiff, so, I don’t want to subjudice. But I want to tell you from my knowledge of law, two courts of coordinate jurisdiction cannot seat on appeal of an order or judgement given by each other.
“A Federal High Court cannot sit on appeal of FCT High Court. The only court that has the jurisdiction to sit on an appeal is the Court of Appeal in this case and the court order of the FCT High Court was served yesterday.
“Most of you have the copy of order and it is an elementary law that first in time prevails. That of Abuja High Court came earlier and we sought interlocutory injunction and there is affidavit of urgency which seeks to prevail on certain kinds of mischief which we prayed that the court should help prevail which they did so.”
He added, “If you look at the main reason why that interlocutory injunction was granted, I don’t think that a Federal High Court of the same jurisdiction will now come and set it aside. We don’t need the knowledge of law to know that a High Court cannot sit on a matter of appeal in High Court. So, I don’t want to say much about the order but I want to say that it is only the Court of Appeal that can vacate this injunction.
“As you can see, we are in the secretariat and we are running the affairs of the party. So, the suspension still prevails until hearing of the matter or if there is any contrary order from the Court of Appeal.”
