SAN FRANCISCO, August 30, (THEWILL) – Justice R. A. Mohammed of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday overruled the suspension handed over by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Senator Andy Uba; his brother, Chris Uba, and three others from the party, as he gave an order lifting their suspension pending the determination of the substantive case filed by them.
Chris Uba is a member, Board of Trustees of the PDP, while his brother, Andy, a serving senator, is a PDP governorship aspirant in Anambra State. Benji Udeozor, Ejike Oguegebo, and Anthonia Nwakwu, who were also suspended by the party had their suspension overturned by the court.
Justice Mohammed gave the order after the counsel to the PDP, Chief Clems Ezika, asked for an adjournment, saying he was just served with the originating summons in court earlier Friday morning.
Ezika informed the court that going by the rules of the court, he had three days to respond and therefore prayed the court for an adjournment to enable him respond to the processes.
But counsel to the plaintiffs, Taiwo Abe, opposed the application for adjournment, saying the respondents had, despite the pending court action, gone ahead to suspend the plaintiffs.
However, Justice Mohammed, in his ruling, held that the cause of adjournment was that the summons was not served on the counsel early enough .
He further held that a party who had been invited to come and show cause could not go ahead to carry out an act which would render the order of the court an academic exercise.
Maintaining that the first defendant (PDP) had shown to be over reaching the court order, the court noted that any action that had a colouration of sanction against the applicants was a deviation from the court order.
“I thereby make an interim order suspending the suspension of the plaintiffs from the party pending the determination of the motion on notice,” Justice Moammed therefore ruled as he fixed hearing of the motion on notice for September 5 .
THEWILL recalls that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP had on Thursday suspended Uba and others for their failure to appear before it over their roles in the parallel governorship primaries conducted in the state on Saturday.
The NWC had summoned them to appear before it on Wednesday to explain why disciplinary actions should not be taken against them in line with the constitution of the party.
Instead, they shunned the invitation and approached the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja for a motion exparte seeking to quash their suspension.
The court also invited the PDP to appear before it to show cause why the plaintiffs reliefs should not be granted as the plaintiffs had joined the party and the Inspector General of Police as respondents in the matter.
