Relief came yesterday for the embattled National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, as the Court of Appeal granted his application for stay of execution of the ruling of a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, which earlier this month suspended him from office.
The judicial relief came moments after President Muhammadu Buhari and APC governors agreed at a meeting in the Presidential Villa, Abuja to suspend the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting scheduled for today, effectively putting in abeyance the push to oust Oshiomhole.
For Oshiomhole’s chief adversary, Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, the two developments disrupted his desire to ease the national chairman out of office in the hope that it would smoothen his way back to the governorship of his state.
The national chairman’s current travails arose from his protracted quarrel with his erstwhile ally and state governor over the control of the state branch of the party, with the latter insisting that the former should bow to him.
With the governorship primaries of Edo State in sight, the struggle for the soul of the party had become intense because whoever controls the APC structure in the state, and has contact at the national secretariat would have an upper hand.
Oshiomhole’s suspension, said an analyst, had given Obaseki the upper hand and had the NEC meeting held today it is unlikely the national chairman would have survived.
The political and judicial developments yesterday would appear to have shifted the balance of forces in Oshiomhole’s favour, discomforting Obaseki, who had hoped to see the back of his former mentor.
But Justice Abubakar Yahaya, who presided over a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, ordered the stay of execution of the suspension order on Oshiomhole, while delivering ruling in an ex-parte application filed by him.
Oshiomhole in the application had prayed the court to halt the suspension order on the grounds that there would be no status quo ante belum if the appellate court failed to do so.
His lead lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), told the court that there was a NEC meeting of the APC slated for today, wherein the applicant would be excluded going by the suspension order of the lower court.
Olanipekun submitted that the order has already created a state of disorder in the party that could degenerate if the appellate court failed to intervene.
In its ruling, the appellate court held that the status quo could only be maintained if the order of the lower court was stayed.
The appellate court said: “We have looked at the application and we are of the view that the image of emergency has been painted. There is information that NEC would hold a meeting tomorrow and the applicant will not be there.
“Justice would not have been served if the applicant is not in that meeting. The status quo can only be maintained if there is a stay. We find merit in the application.
“We hereby order a stay of execution of the lower court made on March 4, 2020, pending the hearing of the notice of appeal slated for Friday, March 20, 2020.”
The court also ordered all parties in the suit not to take any further steps that would affect the ruling.
“We hereby give an order of injunction restraining the respondents or their agents from taking further steps until the determination of the substantive suit,” the court ruled.
The Court of Appeal in addition, made an order for accelerated hearing in the matter.
Justice Yahaya, however, urged politicians to learn to resolve their problems without involving the courts.
Justice Danlami Senchi of the FCT High Court had in an interlocutory ruling, ordered among others, that Oshiomhole should desist from parading himself as the APC national chairman.
The order was sequel to an application of interlocutory injunction asking the court to suspend Oshiomhole, having been suspended as a member of the APC by the party in Edo State.
However, Oshiomhole through his lawyer, Mr. Damian Dodo (SAN), had same day approached the appellate court to reverse the suspension order.
Oshiomhole asked the Court of Appeal to set aside the suspension order of Justice Senchi and restore his position as national chairman of the APC.
The NEC meeting was convened by forces seeking to oust Oshiomhole as the chairman of the ruling party.
It was called by the Acting National Secretary of the party, Mr. Victor Giadom, to seal the fate of Oshiomhole, who was restrained by the court on March 4 from further parading himself as the party’s chairman.
The court had issued the interlocutory injunction in accordance with the prayer of the National Vice-Chairman (North-east) of the party, Mr. Mustapha Salihu, in collaboration with some members of Oshiomhole’s ward in Edo State, asking the court to grant the injunction restraining him from further acting as the party’s national chairman, having been suspended by his ward.
In the aftermath of the court order, which was followed by a rash of counter orders, all from courts of coordinate jurisdiction, the APC had been enmeshed in a crisis that led security operatives to stop Oshiomhole and his group from gaining entry into the party’s national secretariat.
Source: THISDAY
