By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the decision of a Kano High Court to affirm the ‘suspension’ of the party’s national chairman, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, as a fraud.
Recall that the court on Wednesday, 17 April, 2024 granted an order restraining Ganduje from parading himself as a party member, just as it also ordered Ganduje to stop presiding over the affairs of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC.
It gave the ruling as an ex parte order, meaning that the lawyers toGanduje and the other adverse parties sued in the case did not participate in the hearing leading to the issuance of the order. The judge heard only the plaintiff’s lawyer.
But reacting, the APC National Legal Adviser, Prof. Abdulkareem Abubakar Kana, described the court order as a fraud.
Kana, a Professor of Law said, “It is a typical 419 situation and they went too far by obtaining a fraudulent judgment. We also heard this afternoon about that order.
“We haven’t seen it but any court order that emanates from falsehood, you know that such order is unlawful and will not be recognised or respected.
“The individuals who are behind this are not APC members. They are not members of the ward executive or any APC exco of any local government for that matter. We don’t know them.
“The Ganduje ward executives are also going to the NJC to submit a petition against the judge who granted the exparte order. If a judge refuses to invite the other party before granting such order and even follows the order with a threat, you know that such judge has a vested interest.
“Those who purportedly went and appeared before him are fraudsters. One of those whose names appeared in court in the case is here in Abuja at the secretariat and his name is appearing over there. Where are they getting all these things? They have gone too far and the court has also gone too far.”
He said the NJC had before now issued a directive to courts not to issue such fraudulent exparte orders without listening to the other party.
“What would it have taken the judge to order that the APC be served a hearing notice?” he queried.
Meanwhile, Ganduje has received the APC Ward Executives from his Ganduje Ward in Kano State, who were at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja on Wednesday to affirm their confidence in him.
Addressing the ward executives, Ganduje said those who purportedly suspended him were impostors.
In his remarks, chairman of the APC in Gaduje Ward, Ahmed Mohammed, and the party’s chairman in Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area, Suleiman Dawanau, stressed that they were not aware of any decision to suspend Ganduje, and called for thorough probe into the matter.
