A Benue State High Court sitting, in Gboko, and presided over by Justice D.M. Igyuse, has dismissed a suit seeking to set aside the suspension of Dr. Iyorchia Ayu as a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and have him reinstated as National Chairman of the Party.
The suit was filed by one Nongo Ordue on behalf of the 17 member Executives of Dr. Ayu’s Igyorov Council Ward of Gboko Local Government Area of the state, seeking an order setting aside the suspension of the former National Chairman of the PDP from the party.
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The Plaintiffs among other prayers, also sought an order of the court reinstating Dr. Ayu as the National Chairman of the PDP.
In his reply to the suit, counsel to the PDP, Clement Mue, submitted that the judgment of a Makurdi High Court in Utaan against Ayu, which was marked MHC/85/2023 had sufficiently addressed the issues raised in the claim of the plaintiffs.
Mue argued that the suit was therefore caught up by a bar known in legal parlance as ‘estoppel.’
Mue informed the court that “Senator Ayu had since filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal against the decision of the court.”
He argued that “hearing and determining the suit would amount to sitting on an appeal against the earlier decision of a court of coordinate jurisdiction.”
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The PDP counsel urged the court to hold that the suit before it amounted to “an abuse of court process.”
In his judgment, Justice Igyuse pointed out that the plaintiffs had filed a similar claim in suit No. GHC/36/2023 between themselves as plaintiffs, including Dr. Ayu who was the 18th plaintiff and the said suit was struck out by High Court 3, Gboko on June 27, 2023 on the application of J.T. Injua who told the court that the said claim had been filed by the present plaintiffs’ counsel, Nongo Ordue.
Justice Igyuse agreed with the submission of Mr. Mue and accordingly dismissed the suit, describing it as “the worst form of abuse of court process.”