A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Senator Victor Umeh, has condemned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for interfering in the affairs of the coalition party.
Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television, he argued that the David Mark leadership had done no wrong by approaching the court over the recent derecognition of the party by the electoral body.
He pointed to the issue of jurisdiction, arguing that when a court has no jurisdiction, it has no business trying a case.
He said, “The truth is that there is no blame on David Mark’s leadership to approach the court of appeal with an interlocutory appeal on the Federal High Court’s refusal to throw away the case that the court has no jurisdiction.
“The issue of jurisdiction was raised at the onset of the Federal High Court. When the issue of jurisdiction is raised, the court must take it and determine it first of all.
“If the court has no jurisdiction, it has no business going into the matter ab initio. It doesn’t matter how well the court tries the case; if you don’t have jurisdiction, everything you do thereafter will be a nullity.
“When he assumed jurisdiction in the matter, David Mark and his leadership challenged the decision of Justice Nwite’s court that he had no jurisdiction, and they were right.”
Speaking further, Umeh said, “If the Court of Appeal had seen that the Federal High Court had no jurisdiction, it wouldn’t have gone on this long journey.
“The court would have seen that even the Court of Appeal itself has no jurisdiction to go into the matter involving the internal affairs of a political party, leadership, for example, no jurisdiction.”
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