Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim K. Idris, and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, to appear before him over the leadership crisis rocking the party in the state. Th e court also granted an order of substituted service allowing some contestants in the forthcoming local government council elections in Kaduna state, to serve court processes by way of substituted means on the defendants in Kaduna state which is outside the court’s jurisdiction.
Th e plaintiff s in the matter, Honourable Aliyu Ismail, Honourable Abdullahi Yusuf Babanyau and Architect Ado Mohammed dragged the IGP, INEC, Oyegun and others before the court over the legality of Shuaibu Idris Lauje as the party’s chairman in the state. In the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/ CS/493/17, the plaintiff s asked the court to restrain Lauje from parading himself as the party chairman in the state. Th ey also asked the court to
restrain the IGP from harassing, intimidating or arresting Alhaji Danlami Wada, who is the acting party chairman and the 10th defendant in the matter from performing the functions of his offi ce. Th e plaintiff s, in a motion exparte, through their counsel, Babs Akinwumi, who led Foluso Adegalu, urged the court to grant leave to the plaintiff s to serve the defendants outside the court jurisdiction by serving the originating processes and every other process in the suit on Lauje and Wada at the state’s APC secretariat. In addition to this, the plaintiff s also prayed the court for leave to serve the court processes on some of the defendants in Kaduna State. In a well-considered ruling, the court granted the prayers of the plaintiff s and adjourned the matter to the 30th of June 2017 for hearing.
