Appeal Court Faults Federal High Court Judge Over Ruling on PDP Leadership Crisis

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has criticised a judgment delivered by Justice Uche Agomoh of the Federal High Court in Ibadan, ruling that the trial judge overstepped her authority by granting reliefs that none of the parties had requested in a dispute over the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

In a lead judgment by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, the appellate court held that the lower court went beyond the issues before it when it recognised a factional caretaker committee in the party’s protracted leadership tussle.

The case stemmed from a January 30 judgment by Justice Agomoh, which declared the caretaker committee led by Abdurahman Mohammed and Samuel Anyanwu as the legitimate leadership faction of the opposition party. However, the Court of Appeal noted that no party had sought such a declaration.

Justice Onyemenam stated that the trial court clearly went outside the reliefs sought to recognise and uphold a factional caretaker committee.

The appellate court further observed that the Supreme Court had already nullified the Ibadan convention that served as the foundation for the disputed leadership structure. It noted that any superstructure erected upon a null and void convention is necessarily without legal foundation.

The court said that once the apex court had pronounced the convention null and void, the legal basis for the trial court’s recognition of the Anyanwu-led caretaker committee had been extinguished, making further consideration unnecessary.

Although the Court of Appeal did not explicitly invoke the doctrine of ultra petita (granting reliefs not requested), it strongly criticised the lower court’s actions, stating that the offending portions of the judgment were a nullity and liable to be set aside.

The court added that directing a retrial on an issue already settled by the Supreme Court would amount to inviting the lower court to sit in judgment over the apex court, which the law forbids.

The judgment was unanimously endorsed by the other members of the three-man panel, Justices Mohammed Mustapha and Okon Abang.

The ruling effectively dismantles the legal basis for the recognition of the caretaker committee associated with the Abdurahman Mohammed faction, marking another significant turn in the PDP’s lingering internal leadership crisis.