The National Legal Adviser of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Magaji Mato (SAN), has explained the legal meaning of a court order directing parties to maintain the “status quo” amid the ongoing leadership crisis within the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
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Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Wednesday, Mato stated that the term carries amid the drama in ADC a well-defined and consistent interpretation in law, emphasizing that it requires all parties to remain in the same position they were in before approaching the court.
He noted that such orders are usually issued when a matter is pending before the court, instructing all involved to preserve existing arrangements until the substantive case is resolved.
According to him, if the ADC leadership was under Senator David Mark before the case was filed, then an order to maintain the status quo means the leadership structure should remain unchanged until the court delivers its final judgment.
Mato explained that the purpose of the order to ADC is to ensure stability and prevent any disruption while the legal process is ongoing.
He further stated that courts have a duty to preserve the subject of litigation at the interlocutory stage, rather than take actions that could influence or preempt the final ruling.
He added that any move that goes against maintaining the status quo could be seen as prematurely deciding the key issues in dispute, which is not the intention of such an order regarding ADC.
Mato said: “In law, when you say parties are to maintain status quo, there cannot be two different interpretations.
“What that simply means is that there is a hostility that led you to come before us the judges. We are now saying, pending when we listen to the matter to the substantive matter which you brought before us to determine the rights of the parties before us, go and maintain status quo, which means go and stay where you are and continue operating where you are.
“So if the leadership of ADC has been led by Senator David Mark before going to court by Nafiu Gombe, then if the Court of Appeal has made that pronouncement to say, go and maintain status quo, what that simply means is that ‘go and continue with the David Mark-led leadership, pending the determination to know who actually is the leader’. This is because the system must go on.
“The court must always maintain the case, safeguard the case which is the subject matter of litigation. The court cannot destroy the subject matter of litigation at interim or interlocutory stage.
“The court is always expected to grant an order that will give life to the substance that is to be determined by them.
“If the court says it is no longer this, then that means the court itself has determined the final subject matter, and that is not the intendment of the law at the interlocutory stage. What the court is to do is to preserve the case, and not any other thing.”
