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A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Ladan Salihu, has described as ill-timed a Federal High Court ruling in Abuja restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising or participating in state congresses organised by the party’s caretaker leadership.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik ruled on Wednesday that the four-year tenure of the ADC’s state working and executive committees remains valid and subsisting, pending properly constituted congresses and a national convention.
Salihu, in an Arise News interview on Wednesday, said the judgment was delivered to “ambush” the Supreme Court hearing scheduled for today.
“It is ill-timed. It is coming on the eve of, you know, a major Supreme Court judgement. And somebody will tell you, I’ll be the first to say that. It is as if it is being done to ambush or railroad the, you know, process that is going to play out at the Supreme Court tomorrow. And here are some reasons,” said Salihu.
“Look, the executives of the state arms of our party, they barely have less than two weeks to go. And so why would you want to make a judgment when these guys have less than two weeks to go? And I saw Dumebi Kachikwu talking. He took a bloody nose in October last year when the same judge, Joyce Abdul Malik, dismissed his own suit, not recognising David Mark and his team.”
Salihu explained that within party structures, state organs defer to the National Working Committee and the Board of Trustees.
“What is done normally for those congresses to be valid, to be seen to be constitutionally, you know, done, the national executive sends a team that will conduct congresses in states. So everything was being done, look, as part of a grand strategy, you know, by whoever employed those persons to go to court in the first place,” Salihu added.
“And why should a court that dismissed the case of Dymebi, based on a lack of jurisdiction, because it is an internal affair of the party.”
He also said the verdict is a distraction for the party, adding that the Supreme Court’s judgment on Thursday will determine the ADC’s fate.
“And like I said, it’s all a distraction for us. The big issue is tomorrow.”
Dumebi Kachikwu, ADC’s 2023 presidential candidate, said in a separate interview with Arise News that former Senate President David Mark sidelined him and other party members and hijacked the party’s structure.
“They set up AdHoc committees and had these committees take over the functions of the state EXCOs to bring in people that they want in,” said Kachikwu.
