…As Balogun-Fulani faction heads to S’Court
By Kayode Adeoti
Last Tuesday, the Court of Appeal sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital dropped what could be likened to a bombshell of sort when it delivered the much anticipated judgment over the leadership crisis that had engulfed the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The court sacked the Ishola Balogun-Fulani led faction of the APC and restored Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa (BOB)-led APC.
Since it was delivered, the judgement has been attracting condemnations from many people in the state, especially legal practitioners who felt that the judgment has fundamental errors. The legal counsels representing the Balogun-Funlani faction of the APC has yesterday filed all the necessary processes to approach the Supreme Court for redress over the Appeal court verdict.
The Appeal Court in his judgment upheld the nomination of the Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq as the gubernatorial candidate of the APC and subsequently set aside the ruling of the state High Court.
The court declared the High Court lack the power to entertain any suit against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In an unanimous decision on the interlocutory appeals filed by the APC, Justice Hamma Akawu Barka, who read the ruling, said that the originating summons by the Balogun-Fulani faction of the party was not sealed by the registry and that robs the court of jurisdiction.
He therefore upheld all the grounds of appeal filed by the BOB faction and set aside the ruling of the Kwara State High Court which was given on October 24th, 2018. The court said the nomination of AbdulRahmon by the APC National Working Committee (NEC)) was in order.
It said that the State Executive Committee (SEC) of a party is just a branch of its national headquarters and so has no power or right to conduct any primaries to the office of the president, governor, National Assembly or state Assembly positions.
The appellant court also slammed the Kwara State High Court for entertaining suit against INEC on the matter since it has no jurisdiction on the matter.
Speaking on the veracity of the judgement is Barr. A. A Ibrahim, who was part of the legal team that represented Balogun-Fulani faction of the party condemned the judgment saying it was unexpected.
“We are dissatisfied with the judgment delivered by the Court of Appeal because they went beyond the prayers of the appellant in the appeal. That appeal is an interlocutory one and it was an appeal against the ruling of the trial court that is based on the issue of amendment, we expect them to confine themselves within that issue not to go into the merit of the main appeal. That judgement was a surprise to us, we are not satisfied and by God’s grace, we will file our appeal tomorrow, (yesterday).
On his part, Barr. Abdulwahab Bamidele, who was part of the respondent in the suit said the real judgment is yet to be delivered stressing that the news of sacking the Balogun-Fulani faction of the party was not true.
Bamidele added that the judgement delivered by the appeal court was in respect of the interlocutory appeal filed by the other faction, saying it did not upturn the decision of the trial court
“The judgement is in respect of the interlocutory appeal because there are two appeals before the court. But the court did not do anything that upturned the judgment of the trial court or the candidates that were nominated by the Balogun-Fulani-led APC. The final judgment has not been delivered. The news of the matter that is going round the media is a malformation; it doesn’t emanate from the court, what is the source it? Bamidele queried.
In the same vein, Barr. Faisal Folorunsho corroborated his colleagues saying there were many issues that call for questioning in the judgment delivered by the Appeal court. He added that the ruling was faulty because many issues were not well addressed.
Folorunsho also confirmed that his legal team will be approaching the Supreme Court to seek redress.
“There are many issues that were not well decided by the court. The next step to take is to file our matters at the Supreme Court. When we collect the judgment, we are going to study it more but I think there are many things that are faulty about it. We have to fast track processes to the Supreme Court just as BOB faction did in the case of their appeal.
