Delegates elected at the November 1 Ward Congresses of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Enugu State have flayed the ex-parte order granted by the Enugu State High Court purportedly restraining the PDP from acting on the list or names of delegates elected during the party’s congresses pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit brought by a group a group loyal to Governor Sullivan Chime.
Reacting on behalf of the body of Ward Delegates elected at the Ward Congresses in question, a member of the three-man Ward Delegates that emerged from Umuabi Ward in Udi Local Government Area of the State, Hon. Emeka Aneke described the ex-parte injunction granted by the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice Innocent Umezulike as a “gross abuse of court processes and a typical market place injunction”
Hon. Aneke, who said the delegates were not surprised at such “market place injunction”, observed that the State Chief Judge abused court processes by granting an injunction upon an earlier court order on the same matter, which is being heard by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
He said: “We the elected Ward Delegates take exceptions to this gross abuse of court processes by the Enugu State Chief Judge. It is a public knowledge that the matter is a subject of litigation at Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, which had granted an injunction restraining the PDP and its principal agents from receiving any other result of the November 1, Ward Delegates election of the party other than the names submitted by the acting Chairman of the party, Elder David Aja and the Electoral Committee of the party.
“This however did not come to us as a surprise, especially given an earlier the online reports accusing the Chief judge and the Enugu State Governor, Sullivan Chime of plotting to use a kangaroo injunction to truncate the peace deal brokered by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
“It could be recalled that APC governors had boasted that they had some members of the PDP Governors’ Forum working for them to frustrate the party in the forthcoming general election before decamping, and this second injunction coming on the heels of an earlier injunction and various subterranean moves seeking to undermine the Acting Chairman of the PDP in the State, Elder David Aja, from carrying out his legitimate duties leaves no one in doubt that Governor Sullivan Chime is indeed an enemy within.
“We are now truly convinced that although the Governor claims to have accepted not to join the race for the Enugu West Senatorial District, he is hell-bent on working with opposition forces to ensure that the PDP does not present candidates for the 2015 general elections, even as we have it on good authority that the Governor and his men are making plans to field candidates on another party platform in the State”.
Hon. Aneke who alleged that the decision not to properly serve the PDP before ruling on ex-parte motion, was a deliberate attempt by the piper to rig the judicial processes in favour of its paymaster as was the case in the Enugu ‘chicken impeachment’ and a similar controversial order restraining the National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Victor Umeh from parading himself as leader of the party.
“They deliberately served the Enugu PDP instead of the national headquarters to ensure that the PDP did not make an appearance at the court and we are already sending a petition to the National Judicial Council to investigate the processes leading up to this kabu-kabu injunction and the habitual abuse of ex-parte injunction by one man”, he added.
Hon. Aneke asked the PDP faithful and aspirants in Enugu “not to lose sleep over this contrived order as the three-man delegates elected in all the 260 wards of the State will on November 29th elect PDP’s candidates for the House of Assembly election and proceed to elect candidates for the National Assembly and governorship elections in the State”.
“If there was no Ward Congress, on what basis did Governor Chime and his group participate in the last Saturday’s Local Government Government Congress where some of their loyalists were elected as national Delegates by three-man delegates elected on November 1 and on what basis did the Appeal Panel seat on the outcome of the Ward Congress?” Aneke further queried.
