By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday rejected the request of the ousted National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission from effect the resolution of the party.
The resolution of the party reached in separate meetings by the governors elected on the platform of the PDP and later by its Board of Trustees(BoT) backs Ude-Okoye as the authentic National Secretary of the party.
The resolution asked Anyanwu to stop parading himself as the scribe of the party. The party said its action was based on the declaratory judgment of the High Court of Enugu, as upheld by the Court of Appeal.
But reacting to Anyanwu’s request on Wednesday, presiding judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, however, directed the plaintiff to notify INEC and other defendants in the suit to allow the court to hear their side of the matter.
Through his counsel, Ken Njemanze (SAN), Anyanwu filed an ex-parte application urging the court to stop INEC or its agents from receiving or acting upon correspondences or submissions from the PDP unless signed by him.
He also sought an order restraining PDP chairman Ambassador Umar Damagun from forwarding any correspondence, documents, or written submissions to INEC without his signature.
After considering Anyanwu’s arguments, Justice Ekwo ruled that while a case of urgency had been established, the court would not grant the requested reliefs through an ex-parte application.
Instead, he emphasised the need to hear from the defendants before making any orders.
Consequently, the judge directed Anyanwu to serve court processes on INEC and Damagun and ordered both parties to appear in court.
Justice Ekwo set February 24 as the date for hearing the case.
