Alleged justice delay:Senatorial candidate writes CJN, NASS, accuses Supreme Court Registrar of stalling case against Enugu PDP

By Musa Baba Adamu

The candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), in the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria, Comrade Chika Idoko has petitioned the Chief Justice of the Federation and the National Assembly, accusing one Abubakar Babasoro Esq, the Deputy Court Registrar 2 (DR2) of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, of stalling his appeal in a case involving him and the Enugu State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Comrade Idoko had, shortly after the primaries of the PDP in 2022, gone to court seeking the disqualification of all PDP candidates in the state for failing to submit their membership register not later than 30 days before conducting its primaries as prescribed by the Electoral Act.

The Federal High Court sitting in Enugu, where the matter was first heard, ruled that, although the petitioner was able to establish that the party did not comply with the relevant provisions of the Act in the conduct of its primaries, he had no locus on the matter, being as he was, neither a member of the PDP nor a candidate in the party’s primaries.

Not satisfied, Comrade Idoko went to the Court of Appeal, where he lost again, and in addition, was fined the sum of N37 million as general damages to the respondents.

Idoko has since taken the matter to the apex court, where, according to him, the case has allegedly been stalled by the action of Messrs Babasoro.

He wrote: “My Lord, I seek your intervention to save me considering the fine of 37 million Naira imposed on me by the Court of Appeal, even after they agreed with the ruling of the Federal High Court that the PDP Enugu State truly violated the Electoral Act as a result of their failure to Submit their Party Register within the lawfully specified time frame of 30 days to their Party Primary Elections.

In his letter to the CJN, the petitioner, who claimed he had written three previous reminders to the Supreme Court, lamented that the DCR2 Litigation and other staff of the Court have “served as clogs in the wheel of the progress of my matter which occasioned a great injustice to me.”

He said had complied with all the Rules in force at the Supreme Court, he wondered why the officials at the apex Court refused to fix his matter for hearing in a case that was a pre-election matter.

“My Lord, I seek your intervention to save me considering the fine of 37 million Naira imposed on me by the Court of Appeal, even after they agreed with the ruling of the Federal High Court that the PDP Enugu State truly violated the Electoral Act as a result of their failure to Submit their Party Register within the lawfully specified time frame of 30 days to their Party Primary Elections.”