Ebonyi PDP leadership tussle: PDP chairman condemns endless adjournment of court case
Jacob Ogodo, Abakaliki
The Onyekachi Nwebonyi led Executive Committee of the People’s Democratic Party, Ebonyi State has condemned in high terms the act of endless recusal of judges which he said suggests that the judges are quite in support of the delay tactics employed by the defendant by not assuming jurisdiction on the matter and determining the case.
Mr Nwebonyi maintained that there must be an end to any litigation be it criminal or civil and a party cannot hold a court at ransom and the court will just fold her hands.
The Chairman who made this known in a statement he signed said all they need was the ruling and if it didn’t go down well with them, they can appeal as they want their matter to progress and be determined in one way or the other.
He asked the Chief Judge of Ebonyi State how long he would continue to adjourn the matter and keep tolerating his co-judges whom he superintend over to continue to recuse themselves from the matter, adding that by his conduct so far they are suspecting incompetence or corruption somewhere.
He said, “They are praying that their suit be allowed to see the light of the day and not to be killed and buried as demanded by Udeogu defunct group. This is another evil of the century.”
Nwebonyi described the idea of his opponents going to Abuja to institute a fresh action against him and his duly elected executives in the state as an abuse of court process and travesty of justice.
“We as the authentic leadership of the People’s Democratic Party in Ebonyi State condemn in high terms the act of endless recusal which suggests that the judges are quite in support of the delay tactics employed by Udeogu defunct group by not assuming jurisdiction on the matter and determining the case.
“I want to ask the chief judge of Ebonyi State, till when will he continue to adjourn this matter? And you keep tolerating your brother judges that you superintend over to continue to recuse themselves from this matter. By your conduct so far we are suspecting incompetence or corruption somewhere.
“The defunct Udeogu-led Caretaker Committee has been frustrating the proceedings in the matter because they know very well that they have a bad case. The whole world is aware that the suit l filed against them have moved to three courts in Ebonyi State within a month.
“Each time the matter is assigned to a new judge they will raise issues of bias and the judges will recuse themselves from the matter. They did it at Hon. Justice Elvis Ngene’s court, the raised it before my lord the Honourable Chief Judge of Ebonyi State when the Chief Judge assigned the matter to himself.
“They didn’t stop at that. After the Chief Judge recused himself from the matter, it was assigned to my lord Hon. Justice Vincent Nwanchor. The Udeogu team again raised the issue of bias before Hon. Justice Nwanchor in order to buy time to get a favourable judgement in Abuja. This clearly shows that the defendants don’t want the matter to go on and get same determined. These are gimmicks people with bad case employ in political matters like this, and we are neither surprised nor deterred from pursuing our case. Eventually, justice will prevail.”
