Why Supreme Court dismissed case seeking to sack Gov Ayade

The case of Mr. Joe Agi (SAN), who has traverse different courts in the land seeking for the dismissal of Cross River State’s Governor Ben Ayade, on Friday, received a final stop after the Supreme Court sacked it on the basis that it lacked merit.

Resilient Agi, had gone to the Supreme Court after his earlier suit, seeking for the removal of the governor on alleged falsification and loss of membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Abuja Federal High Court and Court of Appeal Abuja were all dismissed.

The appellant, Mr. Joe Agi (SAN), had claimed in his suit that Ayade had lost his membership of the PDP during the period he was sponsored by the party for last year’s election because the governor regularly failed to pay his dues.

Agi was one of the aspirants in the December 8, 2014 governorship primary of the PDP, from which Ayade emerged as the party’s flag bearer in last year’s election in the state.

However, the Court of Appeal on February 5, 2016, upheld an earlier ruling of a Federal High Court in Abuja, which dismissed his case. Poised to take his fight to the highest level, Agi proceeded to the Supreme Court praying it to reverse the judgment of the appeal court.

But the apex court, in an undivided judgment of its five-man panel led by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, held that the suit was devoid of merit.

According to Justice Clara Ogunbiyi, the panel member who read the lead judgment, the issue of the status of a person’s membership of a political party was an internal affair of the party, which a court of law could not determine, affirming the decision of the Court of Appeal which held that the status of a person’s membership of a political party was not “justiciable.

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She submitted that the court could not question Ayade’s membership of the PDP, after the party through its secretary in Cross River State, confirmed at the trial court that he had paid all his dues and that he remained a member of the party.

She said, contrary to Agi’s submission that the word “cleared” was embossed on Ayade’s membership card proves that he had paid all his dues, as stipulated in Section 8 (10) of the PDP’s Constitution.

“As I earlier said, a political party is a voluntary association and its decision is binding on its members, even if it is deemed unreasonable. The decision of the party on issue like this is final. The court will not substitute its will with that of the voluntary association, whether it is reasonable or unreasonable,” she held.

 

 

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