A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has suspended the National convention of PDP being organized by the Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the party slated for August 17th in Rivers state. The embattled factional chairman of the party, Ali Modu Sheriff, had approached the court to seek an interlocutory injunction against the convention. Makarfi and a member of the National caretaker committee of the party, Ben Obi, had immediately applied that they be joined in Sheriff’s suit as co-defendants.
Hearing on their Application was slated for today but Obi had earlier in the day gone to the Port Harcourt Division of the Federal High Court where he was able to secure an ex’parte order that INEC and the police participate and monitor the August 17th party convention. An angry Justice Okon lambasted Obi for rushing to the Port Harcourt Division of the Federal High Court to obtain the ex parte order.
“Senator Ben Obi cannot treat the court with levity. What is the reason for rushing to another court when the court is already seized of this matter? I want to point out that a court of coordinate jurisdiction cannot make an order that will neutralise the proceedings of this court. The Port Harcourt Division of this court cannot make an order to neutralise the proceedings of this court”he said Futhermore, Justice Okon said.”
“To maintain the dignity and integrity of the court and in the over all interest of justice, taking into consideration the competing claims of the parties, an order is hereby made in the interim suspending the PDP convention slated for August 17, 2016, pending when the plaintiff motion on notice dated July 20 is served and heard” he said.