The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has held that the Federal High Court in Ibadan erred when it recognised a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caretaker committee linked to a faction associated with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, the appellate court ruled that the trial judge, Justice Uche Ogomoh, went beyond the reliefs sought by the parties when she recognised the caretaker committee as the legitimate leadership structure of the party.
The dispute stemmed from a judgment delivered on January 30, in which the Federal High Court held that the caretaker committee led by Abdurahman Mohammed and Samuel Anyanwu constituted the lawful leadership of the PDP.
However, the Court of Appeal held that none of the parties before the lower court had sought such a declaration, making the pronouncement improper.
According to Justice Onyemenam, there remained a live issue concerning the trial court’s decision to recognise and uphold a factional caretaker committee despite the fact that such relief was never requested by any of the litigants.
The appellate court further noted that the Federal High Court’s decision was anchored on the legitimacy of the PDP’s Ibadan National Convention, a convention that had already been declared null and void by the Supreme Court.
The court held that once the convention was invalidated, any leadership structure purportedly created or validated through it automatically lost its legal foundation.
It therefore concluded that the legal basis upon which the caretaker committee was recognised had been extinguished by the Supreme Court’s decision.
The Court of Appeal also declined to order a retrial, holding that such a step would serve no practical purpose since the substantive issues had already been conclusively determined by the apex court.
Justice Onyemenam warned that directing a retrial in the circumstances could amount to inviting a lower court to revisit matters already settled by the Supreme Court, a course of action the law does not permit.
The judgment, which was unanimously supported by Justice Mohammed Mustapha and Justice Okon Abang, effectively removes the legal foundation for the recognition of the caretaker committee and may have significant implications for any decisions previously taken by Independent National Electoral Commission regarding the faction’s status within the PDP.