Court of Appeal in Abuja has upheld an earlier ruling that barred the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from holding its November 15–16 national convention in Ibadan without allowing former Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa State, to contest for the party’s chairmanship.
In a unanimous decision, a three-member panel of the appellate court affirmed the judgment delivered on November 14 by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court of Nigeria.
The court ruled that the PDP went ahead with the convention despite a subsisting court order directing the party to allow Lamido to take part in the race for national chairman.
According to the appellate court, proceeding with the convention in defiance of a valid court directive amounted to contempt and demonstrated a clear disregard for the authority of the judiciary.
The panel noted that there was no dispute that the party conducted the convention while the order of the Federal High Court was still in effect.
Rejecting the PDP’s defence that it acted based on a judgment from another court of coordinate jurisdiction, the justices stressed that parties involved in a legal dispute do not have the liberty to choose which court orders to obey.
The court emphasized that “it is not for any party in a case to decide which order to obey or ignore.”
It further held that the PDP ought to have sought a stay of execution of the judgment or filed an appeal before proceeding with the convention.
The appellate court also agreed with the trial court that it had the authority to hear Lamido’s case and grant the reliefs he requested.
Consequently, the appeal filed by the PDP was dismissed for lacking merit, while the court ordered the party to pay N2 million as costs.
