SAN FRANCISCO, May 22, (THEWILL) – The Supreme Court has struck out an application by the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ali Modu Sheriff, asking the court not to hear the appeal of Ahmed Makarfi-led national caretaker committee of the party.
Makarfi had a filed an appeal at the apex court to challenge the February 17 judgement of the Port Harcourt division of the appeal court which sacked his caretaker committee and affirmed Sheriff as the party’s National Chairman.
But Sheriff, in the application, asked the Supreme Court to not to hear Makarfi’s appeal because he could not initiate legal proceedings in the name of party, having been sacked by the appeal court.
At the opening of the hearing on Monday, Sheriff’s lawyer, Akin Olujimi, said the application was an abuse of court process because Makarfi ought to have requested the leave of court before making the application.
He stated that Makarfi’s counsel, Wole Olanipekun did not apply for leave on some 20 out 24 grounds of arguments.
Olujimi prayed the court to dismiss the application, insisting that “This constitutes and abuse of court of processes. He is using two different processes to sustain his appeal”.
Responding, Olanikpekun prayed the court to disregard the argument of Olujimi, describing them as baseless.
He said, “I urge your lordships to discountenace all that he has said, saying we did not seek leave for our grounds. He is the one abusing court processes.
“Our appeal was dated April 27 and the judgement of the court of appeal was dated February 17. According to the supreme court rule, we have three months. Why will we be asking for leave for time when we were within time. Application for leave to appeal is also an appeal.”
After listening to both sides, the five-man justices led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen held that Makarfi’s application was considered valid since it complied with the rules of the Supreme Court.
He pointed out that the Supreme Court rules hold that an application challenging a decision of a lower court ought to have come within three months after the ruling of the lower court.
Onnoghen said the apex court had taken note of the fact that the case was decided at the lower court in February, while the motion at the Supreme Court was filed less than three months after the ruling by the lower court.
He therefore announced the unanimous ruling in favour of the Makarfi faction of the PDP, and awarded an unstated cost against the faction led by Sheriff.
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