Samuel Anyanwu, national secretary of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), has accused Donatus Okorowo, a judge of being biased in a suit
seeking to stop the party’s presidential primary.
Cosmas Ndukwe, a former deputy speaker of Abia state house
of assembly, had approached a federal high court in Abuja seeking to stop the
party’s presidential primary.
The exercise is scheduled to take place on May 28.
Ndukwe filed an ex parte motion marked FHC/ABJ/CS/508/2022,
through his lawyer, Paul Erokoro, on April 28.
He asked the court to stop the PDP presidential primary
election because the party did not zone its ticket to the south-east.
Rather than grant the application to halt the planned
primary, the judge ordered that the PDP should appear before it on May 5 and
show cause why the court should not accede to the plaintiff’s demand.
On May 10, the judge ordered abridgement of time for parties
in the suit to file and exchange processes.
He also ordered substituted service of court processes on
Anyanwu, after his counsel, Kalu Agu, refused to accept service in open court.
Agu had submitted that it would not be in the interest of
justice for the court to abridge time when his client was yet to be served with
the suit.
On May 18, the court ordered the defendants to respond
orally to the affidavit of an applicant seeking to be joined in the suit — an
order which did not please the third defendant.
‘GRAVE LIKELIHOOD OF
BIAS’
Consequently, in a letter addressed to John Tsoho, chief
judge of the federal high court, Agu asked that the matter be transferred to
another judge for hearing.
He said the request was based on “manifest bias or grave
likelihood of bias leading to a breach of fair hearing”.
In the court proceeding on Thursday, he prayed the judge to
return the case file to the chief judge or stay proceedings pending a response.
Paul Erokoro, the plaintiff’s counsel, opposed the
application, describing it as an abuse of court process.
In his ruling, the judge refused to halt the case and fixed
May 25 for a hearing.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, a former managing director
of the now-defunct FSB International Bank and presidential hopeful, has been
joined as a defendant in the suit.
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