The court dismissed the suit following a request from Mr Anyanwu’s lawyer that his tenure as National Secretary of PDP has rightfully elapsed.
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday dismissed a suit filed by Samuel Anyanwu, seeking validation as the national secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The judge, Mohammed Umar, dismissed the suit after Mr Anyanwu’s lawyer disclosed that his client’s tenure as PDP’s national secretary expired in December last year.
Sued as defendants in the suit were the PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Umar Damagun, a factional national chairman; Sunday Udeh‑Okoye, PDP National Vice Cairman, South‑East; Ali Odela, deputy national secretary; and Setonji Koshoedo, deputy national secretary.
Speaking earlier during Tuesday’s proceedings, Mr Anyanwu’s lawyer, U. C. Njemanze‑Aku, said it was not proper “for a matter that has been overtaken by events to continue.”
“In the interest of justice, I apply to withdraw this matter to save the court’s time,” Mr Njemanze-Aku said.
Responding, INEC’s lawyer, Akintayo Balogun, said the suit “ought not to have been instituted in the first place” and asked the court to dismiss it with costs. He requested one million naira.
M. O. Akpan, the lawyer who rerpesented Mr Dajuma, also argued that the suit should not have been filed and sought N1.5 million as cost. Similarly Ugochukwu Okanu, representing the fourth defendant and J. A. Musa, for the sixth defendant, asked for N1 million each for the same reason.
However, Mr Njemanze-Aku frowned on the positions of the defendants and their requests for cost.
He insisted that the withdrawal was due to circumstances beyond his client’s control. “We owe a duty to the court, and to avoid wasting its time, we decided to withdraw the case,” he said.
He added that “it is not fair to penalise the plaintiff,” and urged the court to allow the parties to bear their own costs.
After listening to the arguments, the court dismissed the suit. Regarding costs, he ruled that “the delay is not on any of the parties. The situation made it so. For this reason, I award no cost.”
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