NBA had to set up a three-man committee on the spate of conflicting orders that were obtained across the country on the Anambra guber
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has received the report of its three-man investigative committee on the litany of conflicting judgments that characterized the build-up to the November 6 Anambra governorship election.
On June 28, Justice Musa Ubale of the Jigawa State High Court handed down an order to affirm Jude Okeke’s claim to the position of national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Okeke was the leader of a faction of APGA which conducted the parallel primary election that produced a member of the House of Representatives, Chukwuma Umeoji, as the party’s candidate for the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State. This conflicted with a Delta State High Court ruling that invalidated the Umeoji parallel primary
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The committee was also set up to investigate the conflicting court judgments on the case involving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairman, Uche Secondus because High Courts in Rivers, Cross River and Kebbi collided with each other on the case with conflicting judgments.
The chaotic rulings necessitated the NBA President, Mr Olumide Akpata to set up a three-man Committee made up of Dr Babatunde Ajibade SAN, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Mr Oluwaseun Abimbola SAN, Chairman of the Section on Legal Practice and Dr. Monday Ubani, Chairman of the Section on Public Interest and Development Law.
Before setting up the Committee, Mr Akpata issued a statement condemning the “unfortunate and recurring trend of contradictory Court decisions and orders especially amongst courts of coordinate jurisdiction typically arising from ex-parte applications and almost always in political matters.”
The three-man committee was mandated to make enquiries and provide the NBA President with a preliminary report on what transpired in the specific cases referred to in the statement and, if and where its members were involved in a manner amounting to misconduct, to make recommendations for further action by the NBA.
“The specific cases referred to in the NBA President’s statement were those relating to the National Chairmanship crisis of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and those relating to the nomination of candidates by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the last gubernatorial elections in Anambra State,” a member of the committee, Monday Onyeakachi Ubani, said in a statement.
He said the committee has carried out the assignment to the best of its ability and has sent its findings and recommendations to the NBA President for further action.