Following a visit of the Ganduje Ward leaders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) to the National Chairman of the ruling party Abdullahi Ganduje on Wednesday, a petition was filed before the National Judicial Commissions (NJC) concerning the actions of a Kano State High Court Judge, Justice Usman Na’abba who issued a court order confirming the suspension of the APC National Chairman.
More so, Justice Usman Na’abba is the same judge presiding over the alleged corruption charges against the National Chairman of the APC.
The petition dated April 17th, 2024 is signed by the chairman of APC Ganduje ward and 26 others, appealing to the NJC to evaluate the adherence to judicial guidelines and the constitution in the context of non-interference and political party affairs.
“We, the Executive Committee members of Ganduje Ward, Dawakin-Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State, write to formally bring to your attention and seek intervention concerning the actions of Hon. Justice Usman Mallam Na‘Abba, presiding over Court 4 of the High Court of Kano State, in a ruling involving our party, the All Progressives Congress.
“Honourable Justice Usman Mallam Na‘Abba granted an ex parte order suspending Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as a member of the All Progressives Congress and further restrained him from performing his role as the National Chairman.”
The party said that a court summons was never served on Ganduje and further argued that the decision to intervene in the party’s internal affairs without clear and compelling reasons to circumvent the party’s own mechanisms appears to constitute a judicial breach.
“This action sets a concerning precedent regarding the impartiality and scope of judicial intervention in political party governance.
“In light of the above concerns, we respectfully request the National Judicial Council to: conduct a thorough review of the circumstances and justification behind the decision of Honourable Justice Usman Mallam Na’abba to issue such orders against Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and assess potential disciplinary measures if it is found that Honourable Justice Usman Mallam Na‘Abba acted beyond his jurisdiction or displayed conduct unbecoming of a judicial officer” part of the petition reads.
The position was also shared by the National Legal Adviser of the APC, Prof Abdulkareem Kana, who insisted that the ruling party would neither respect nor obey the court order because it was unlawful.
The Legal Adviser who addressed journalists on Wednesday, said they were fully convinced it was an unlawful order granted by a judge who didn’t deem it fit to send the party a court summons.
“We all saw the visit of the ward and local government officials to the party chairman today. They are ordinarily the people who should be involved in the trending issues of the purported suspension.
“We all got information that certain persons suspended the chairman. We immediately filed a complaint to the police and we have copies of it served to the IGP, urging them to investigate the individuals behind it, especially as all the major stakeholders have all shown up to disassociate themselves from the action.
“They did not only distance themselves from the action but also disowned it. We don’t know where all these things are coming from. Our preliminary investigation showed that it was a fraud and a typical 419 situation.
“Unfortunately, they went too far in raising fraudulent documents and circulating them. We are also hearing this afternoon, we are yet to see any court order, that they have also used the same fraudulent document to obtain an order of the court, which we have heard but not seen yet.
Whatever kind of order that might emanate from such a document will also be an order obtained by fraud.
“All of us know that whatever order obtained by fraud is an unlawful order and we are not going to recognize, respect or obey it.”