The Court of Appeal in Abuja has upheld the November 14 judgment of the Federal High Court, which restrained the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from proceeding with its November 15–16 national convention in Ibadan without allowing former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, to participate as a candidate for the party’s national chairmanship.
Delivering a unanimous decision, a three-member panel of the appellate court affirmed the earlier ruling by Justice Peter Lifu, holding that the PDP’s decision to go ahead with the convention despite a subsisting court order amounted to contempt of court and a clear disregard for the authority of the judiciary.
The court observed that it was not in dispute that the PDP conducted the convention in defiance of the Federal High Court’s directive, which required the party to give Lamido the opportunity to participate in the chairmanship contest.
Rejecting the party’s defence that it acted based on a judgment from another court of coordinate jurisdiction, the appellate court stressed that no litigant has the discretion to choose which court orders to obey.
“It is not for any party in a case to decide which order to obey or ignore,” the court held, emphasizing that the proper legal course would have been for the party to seek a stay of execution of the order or challenge it through an appeal before proceeding with the convention.
The panel further condemned the party’s actions as contemptuous, noting that the trial court was correct in assuming jurisdiction over the matter and in granting the reliefs sought by Lamido.
Consequently, the Court of Appeal dismissed the PDP’s appeal for lacking merit and imposed costs of ₦2 million against the party.
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