APC drags Kano judge before NJC over Ganduje’s suspension

The All Progressives Congress, on Wednesday, said it had dragged Justice Usman Na’abba of the Kano State High Court before the National Judicial Council for making an ex parte order restraining the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, from further parading himself as the party’s leader.

The restraining order by the judge followed Monday’s suspension of Ganduje by executives of the Ganduje Ward in the Dawakin-Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State.

On Monday, the Legal Adviser of the APC Ganduje Ward, Dawakin-Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State, Haladu Gwanjo, had addressed journalists in Kano, declaring Ganduje suspended.

Gwanjo said the APC ward leadership took the decision in view of the bribery allegations hanging on Ganduje’s neck.

He made reference to the bribery charges, involving $413,000 and N1.38bn, filed by the Kano State Government against Ganduje before the Kano State High Court.

Further to the suspension, the Ganduje ward executives, on Wednesday, took an ex parte application, marked K/M658/2024, before Justice Na’Abba, praying that Ganduje be restrained.

The ex parte application had as applicant, the Ganduje Ward Legal Adviser, Gwanjo; and the ward’s Assistant Secretary, Laminu Baguma.

Listed as respondents in the suit are the APC, APC National Working Committee, the Kano State APC Executive Committee and Ganduje, listed as the fourth respondent.

In the copy of the certified true copy of the order sighted by The PUNCH on Wednesday, Justice Na’Abba ruled: “An order is hereby granted directing all parties in the suit to maintain status quo ante as of 15th day of April 2024 in relation to the suspension of the 4th from the 1st respondent by the Ganduje Ward Executive Committee, restraining the respondents, whether by themselves, servants, agents and privies, from taking any steps contrary to the decision of the Executive Committee of the Ganduje Ward Executive, which suspends the 4th respondent from the 1st respondent political party pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”

Furthermore, he granted the applicants the leave to serve the court papers on the 1st, 3rd and 4th respondents outside the jurisdiction “to wit: at No. 40 Biatyre Crescent, Abuja.”

The judge adjourned the matter till April 30.

But the APC condemned the order, describing it as an illegality.

In the petition dated April 17 and signed by the Chairman of Ganduje’s ward and 26 others, the Kano APC appealed to the NJC to evaluate the adherence to judicial guidelines and the constitution in the context of non-interference and political party affairs.

The petition read: “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.”

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.

Addressing journalists on Wednesday, Kana 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.He said, “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 recognise, respect or obey it.”

Meanwhile, the embattled APC National Chairman, on Wednesday, described as stage-managed his suspension by the Ganduje Ward in the Dawakin-Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State.

Ganduje said he remained the APC National Chairman, adding that he had met President Bola Tinubu, who assured him that there was no threat to his position.

The embattled APC leader was captured speaking in the Hausa language in a video circulating online.

He was addressing Ganduje APC ward leaders who paid him a solidarity visit.

Addressing the visiting ward leaders, Ganduje said, “Yesterday, I saw Mr President and explained to him that what happened was a stage-managed drama and he agreed. He Commended you (ward leaders) and asked me to tell you to be patient because it was stage-managed and assured that my position as the National Chairman of the APC remained unchanged.”

While receiving the delegation of 27 executive members of his ward at the party secretariat in Abuja, Ganduje said the move to suspend him was orchestrated to deny Tinubu of Kano votes in 2027.

Also in attendance were members of the National Working Committee and executive members of Kano APC.

Reacting to the drama, Ganduje said his investigation revealed that the arrows of persecution against him were coming from the camps of the New Nigeria People’s Party and the Governor of Kano, Abba Yusuf.

He said, “I welcome all the party members from Kano here, 27 of them if I am not mistaken. They are all members of my ward in Dawakin Tofa Local Government in Kano State. But we have heard your complaint. You complained that you have dissociated yourselves from that false claim (suspension) and in addition, you have appealed that we take appropriate legal action according to the rule of law. This is very vital.

“When we first heard the news, we knew it was not true. But we had to exercise patience to affirm those behind it. After a formal investigation, it was found that those who met with officials of the Kano State government were not executive members either at the ward, state or even members of our party.

“These lies are peddled by the NNPP and the governor of Kano State to destroy our party because they are so concerned that during their first year in office, the people have seen the destruction of the economy of Kano down to the increase in political violence and also the destruction of political morality. With all these put together, they have started seeing the failure of their party. They are more concerned that we might take over the government from their party in 2027.”

While urging his supporters not to panic, the APC chairman disclosed that he knew it was a grand plan orchestrated to stop Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid by starving him of the same humongous votes he received from Kano State in the last presidential election.

Ganduje also confirmed that he has already security agents including the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun and the Director General of the Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi.

He further raised concerns that if the trend of allowing a party to cause chaos in another political platform is not checkmate, it tends to disrupt the practice of democracy in any nation.

“They are also concerned that we produced the second highest votes for Mr President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. They are so afraid we might produce far higher votes that can make the president retain his seat. So we know that their motive is to create confusion so that we will not have the courage to take over the government again and also to ensure that our President, Bola Tinubu, does not have the intimidation votes of that kind from Kano State again.

“We will tell them that their intention is impossible. That intention will fail. We will show them that our platform in Kano state is rock solid and it is getting ready to give Mr President very high votes, even the highest. This is a new distracted phenomenon in a democracy that should not be allowed to thrive in a political party. More importantly, you cannot just gather people from motor parks and claim that they are members of another political party.

“This new dimension of distraction should be checked by the security agencies and even the judiciary. We will not allow those saboteurs and fake APC politicians to go free like that. We have already written the IGP and DG of the DSS to pursue the case. We have their names, know their phone numbers and even their political leanings. You have heard that some of them were even wearing the so-called red caps. They are so daft and insensitive. We assure you that we will pursue this case to a logical conclusion,” he said.