Court adjourns suit over Katsina PDP crisis
A Katsina High Court has adjourned ruling to November 29 in a suit filed by an aggrieved faction of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Katsina State, challenging the conduct of the party congresses conducted by another faction led by Senator Yakubu lado
The Nation recalls a faction of the party led by Lado conducted party congresses, which led to the emergence of a factional leadership of the party from ward to state level.
However, another faction led by former Secretary to the Katsina State Government, Alhaji Mustapha Inuwa and other party chieftains filed a suit before the High Court challenging the conduct of the congresses.
The defendant filed a counter-application challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit which it said is an internal party affair.
The presiding judge, Justice Abbas Bawale, after listening to submissions by the counsels of the plaintiff and the defendant, adjourned the case to November 29 for ruling on the matter.
The judge also gave the counsels an earlier date to determine the preliminary objection and the substantive suit in the case, prior to the adjourned date for the ruling.
During an interview with newsmen shortly after the court sitting, counsel to a faction of the PDP which is the defendant in the suit, Barr Isaac Nwachukwu, said he presented an argument that party congress is an internal affair.
He said: “Our argument is that party congress is an internal affair of the party, it has been ruled in many decided authorities that courts do not have jurisdiction to entertain this kind of case’’.
Counsel to the plaintiffs, Barr. Mustafa Shitu Mahuta, said he was at the court to challenge the conduct of the PDP congresses from ward to local government and state levels which he said was done illegally.
He told reporters: “We came before this court challenging the conduct of congresses of the PDP from state down to local government and ward levels which was done against democratic tenets and principles, and against the PDP constitution itself’’.
