Court Vacates Order Restraining APC Convention

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday issued an order vacating the restraining injunction against the National Convention of the All Progressives Congress fixed for March 26th.

Justice Bello Kawu in his ruling on Friday stated that a member of a political party can’t sue the party.

According to Kawu, the order of November 18, 2021, has been overtaken by a recent Supreme Court judgement on a similar matter.

The court fixed March 30 for the substantive suit.

An aggrieved member of the ruling party, Salisu Umoru, had approached the court to restrain the party, the Caretaker Chairman of the party, Mai Mala Buni and the Independent National Electoral Commission from organising the National Convention of the party until the determination of the suit.

He had further sought an “Interlocutory injunction restraining the 1st and 2nd defendants/respondent (APC and Governor Buni), their allies, agents, representatives, associates or whoever is acting for them or through them from organising, holding or conducting the national convention of the APC in January and February 2022 or any other date either before or after pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.”

The application seeking to set aside the November 18, 2021 ruling of the court restraining the convention was stalled on Tuesday after two lawyers, Shuaibu Aruwan (SAN) and Michael Adoyi, both announced appearances for the APC.

In the application dated March 9, 2022, the APC was asking for “an order of this honourable court striking out the suit in its entirety for want of jurisdiction.

“And for such other order(s) as the honourable court may deem fit in the circumstance.”

He said the issue of defence counsel had just been resolved and they would need time to join issues with the pending applications before the court.