Court Voids Anambra PDP’s Adhoc Leadership

Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday voided the caretaker/ ad-hoc committee established by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to run the affairs of its Anambra chapter pending the 2015 general elections.

It ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to accept the list of delegates or nominated candidates that emanated from the primaries conducted by the caretaker committee led by Colonel Augustine Akobundo.

 Justice Evoh Chukwu, in a judgment yesterday, faulted the PDP for setting up the committee in violation of his court’s subsisting order that parties to a suit over the party’s leadership should maintain status quo pending the determination of the suit.

He held that the action by the PDP, in establishing the caretaker committee during the pendency of the suit and the subsistence of his court’s order, was not only an affront to the court’s dignity and integrity, by a bold display of impunity.

The judgment was on a suit marked; FHC/ABJ/CS/854/2014 filed by two chieftains of the PDP in Anambra State – Ejike Oguebego and Chucks Okoye.

 It had PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as defendants. The judge, who refused the preliminary objection by the defendants, held that by its action, the 1st defendant (PDP) “has shown total disrespect to this court and this must not be allowed to stand to avoid creating a dangerous precedence.

For the sanctity of the Judiciary, this brazen display of impunity or total disregard to the court must be stopped, at least, to serve as a deter- ENUGU made history on Wednesday, as the only Nigerian city among thirty five cities from across the globe invited to join the 100 Resilient Cities Network (100RC) pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation, New York.

The announcement was made during The Rockefeller Foundation’s Urban Resilience Summit in Singapore. The other three African cities that made the list alongside the Coal City of Enugu are Kigali (Rwanda), Accra (Ghana) and Arusha (Tanzania).

The choice of Enugu was predicated on the spectacular transformation the city has undergone in the past seven years under the administration of Governor Sullivan Chime.

 This was an addition to numerous national and international recognitions that have been bestowed on Enugu state since the Chime administration.

The organizers of the network said that Enugu was chosen from 331 applicants on the basis of its ability to “demonstrate a unique vision for resilience, a longterm commitment to cutting across silos of government and sectors of society, a special attention to the needs of the poor and vulnerable”.

The Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday dismissed suit filed by some Igbo men and women who claimed they were allegedly forced out of Lagos. Justice Musa Kurya entered judgment in favour of Lagos State Government. He held that the suit lacked merit and the allegations could not be substantiated.

The applicants: Rosemary Nathaniel, Friday Ndukwe, Grace Igbochi, Ugulori Tutua, Chinyere Nicholas, and Osondu Mbuto, had sued the state for themselves and on behalf of 77 others and sought the enforcement of their rights. Joined as respondents in the suit are were Lagos State Government, its Attorney General and the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State command.

They had sought a declaration that their arrest, remand and forceful deportation from Lagos to Onitsha in 2012, on the ground that they were non-indigenes of Lagos was a violation of their personal liberty and freedom of movement.

The applicants had prayed the court to declare that such alleged action of the Lagos State Government was a violation of Sections 35, 41(1) and 42 of the Constitution, and Articles 6,12, 2 and 28 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. They also asked the court to award damages in the sum of N2 billion against the Lagos State Government and its agents, for breach of their rights. The applicants had also sought for an order of the court compelling the respondents to tender a published apology to them in at least three widely circulating national dailies.