Ondo PDP Ticket: Appeal Court Panel Adjourns Till Nov. 10 For Rulings

The Court of Appeal special panel to hear matters arising from the Ondo
state chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has reserved
rulings in some of the pending cases before it till November 10.

The head of the panel, Justice Ibrahim Salauwa, at Tuesday’s sitting,
said the three-man panel needed time to go through the arguments and
come up with rulings on some of the matters before it, hence the
adjournment.

One the cases the panel is likely to pass judgment on Thursday is the
issue of jurisdiction and legality of the panel brought before it by the
Ondo State factional Chairman of PDP, Prince Biyi Poroye.

Counsel to Poroye, Benson Nwofor, had moved an application, asking the
court to set aside and disband the special panel on the ground that “it
was illegal and lacking in jurisdiction.”

According to Nwofor, he was seeking reliefs on 11 grounds to support the motion.

“I want to submit that the rules of the decision to set up the panel was
made by the President of Court of Appeal at her administrative and not
judicial capacity.

“I submit that the court has the right to set aside that decision. It is
well settled in law that rules of natural justice as enshrined in
Section 36 subsection 1 of our Constitution has not been followed in
setting up the panel.”

He said Eyitayo had made representation to the President of Appeal Court to constitute the Special panel.

“The fact remains that the first respondent did not deny that Eyitayo
made representation to the President of the Court to constitute special
panel. The President ought to have asked the other side for us to
respond upon receiving the letter from Eyitayo. The implications is that
the right of fair hearing is violated by not hearing from us.

“The consequence of fair hearing is breached here, the decision of the
President of Court of Appeal should be be set aside. This is not based
on merit- whether she was right or not.

“I urged the court to please grant the application and return all case files to her ”

The court had reserved ruling.

Source: Street Journal