Posted by By Tobi Soniyi and Festus Owete, Abuja on
Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi rejected Atiku‘s application which sought to consolidate his suit with a preliminary objection raised by the party leadership to the action, on the grounds that the court‘s competence to hear the suit had been challenged.
An Abuja High Court, on Monday, rejected an application by Vice-President Atiku Abubakar asking the court to hear a suit he filed to challenge his suspension from the Peoples Democratic Party.
Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi rejected Atiku‘s application which sought to consolidate his suit with a preliminary objection raised by the party leadership to the action, on the grounds that the court‘s competence to hear the suit had been challenged.
Oniyangi said that where jurisdiction of a court to hear a case was under attack, the court must first determine if it has jurisdiction before going to the substantive matter.
The judge, however, said he would expedite action on the case as he ordered the PDP to appear before the court on Wednesday to argue its preliminary objection.
Last week, a Federal High Court in Abuja also toed a similar judicial path by throwing out the Vice-President‘s request that his substantive suit, seeking to void the indictment passed on him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Administrative Panel of Inquiry for alleged misappropriation of public fund be considered alongside the objection raised by government.
While Atiku asked the court to declare his purported suspension from the PDP unconstitutional and illegal, his counsel, Mr. Rickey Tarfa [SAN], approached the court with an oral application, seeking to consolidate hearing of the substantive action with pending interlocutory applications, including the objection raised by the defendants.
Tarfa noted that the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal had come to embrace the fast track system of justice administration by adopting consolidation of preliminary applications with the substantive action.
He said, "The essence of this new practice, which has the blessings of our superior courts of record is to fast track justice delivery, quicken the process and eliminate unnecessary delays of the judicial process, which is often caused by series of interlocutory applications."
Opposing the application, the defendants' lawyer, Chief Joe Kyari Gadazama [SAN], said the request for consolidation would amount to "putting the cart before the horse."
Meanwhile, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties has warned that the investigation into the management of the Petroleum Development Trust Fund by the Senate ad-hoc panel would be an exercise in futility if President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar did not appear before the panel.
National Publicity Secretary of the CNPP, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, who stated this in a statement on Monday, said since the two top members of the government were the main dramatis personae in the matter, it would be wrong not to allow them to testify before the panel.
Okechukwu commended the upper legislative chamber for setting up the panel and noted that both men's attendance would open vistas and sanitise the political landscape.
The CNPP spokesperson was reacting to the explanation given by the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai on why the meeting between the President and his deputy's team failed.