On Tuesday, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was unable to suspend or remove the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, from the party as a result of an order issued by the Federal High Court in Abuja, which repeated a prior ruling issued by the court.
In a judgement on an ex parte application that Mr Wike had submitted, on February 2nd, Judge James Omotosho imposed the restraining order against the party in question.
On Tuesday, when the case was resumed, the judge issued an order to the parties involved, instructing them not to take any actions that might make the court’s verdict “worthless.”
Mr Omotosho repeated his ruling by stating that “the order of this court issued on 2 February 2023, is thus prolonged till the hearing and determination of the substantive matter.”
In the lawsuit, Mr Wike asked the court to protect his fundamental human rights by preventing the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), its National Working Committee, its National Executive Committee, the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, and the PDP National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, from carrying out their threat to suspend or expel him from the party. This request was made in the context of Mr Wike’s lawsuit.
Mr Wike’s attorney, Joshua Musa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), confirmed receipt of court files from the PDP during the hearings that took place on Tuesday.
“On February 10th, we were given (court documents and other legal documents). As a result, we still have time to reply to them. Mr Musa told the court that a response would be sent to the filed processes.
PDP’s counsel, Johnson Usman, a SAN, responded to the judge’s ruling by promising, “We would not tamper with the res (the subject matter of the case before its conclusion).”
M.A. Bawa served as the commission’s representative during the meeting.
The court decided to postpone the trial until March 6 in order to hear all of the ongoing petitions as well as the substantive issue, although this was contingent on the attorneys involved in the case agreeing.
Since immediately after he was defeated in the primary election for the presidency of the PDP in May, Mr Wike has been at odds with the leadership of the party.
The governor of Rivers is the head of the G5, a group consisting of five PDP governors who are dissatisfied with the party leadership.