Politics
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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Roland Uchendu Pele
December 9, 2016 at 5:56 pm
Enemies of progress, we would call the folks behind the suit.
seyi jelili
December 9, 2016 at 6:29 pm
sure. I am sure they might still want to take the case to the supreme court because politicians are not always satisfied with judgement.
JOHNSON PETER
December 9, 2016 at 5:57 pm
congratulations to Ayade for his victory. Victoria ascerta!
Emmanuel Alayegbami
December 9, 2016 at 6:40 pm
politicians are just enriching our lawyers unnecessarily. I will have to go study law in school so as to get cases both genuine and useless ones from politicians.
Margret Dickson
December 9, 2016 at 7:50 pm
my brother, I wonder oo. The rate at which our politicians pump money into lawsuit is just too much. Any little thing, na court
Johnson Amadi
December 9, 2016 at 7:27 pm
When I see somebody cases, I just shake my head for our politicians. They have too much money to be spent on useless cases but they can’t donate a kobo to Nigeria’s economy
Nonso Ezeugo
December 9, 2016 at 11:38 pm
Are you a learner. Don’t you know the type of politican we have in this country. They only attend to useless things than something to assist the country
Amarachi Okoye
December 9, 2016 at 11:44 pm
Our politician need to wake up and stop spending money unnecessary. They are project to do. Not wasting money on useless case that lawyers will use to achieve there arm