The ruling All Progressives Congress has announced that it will not obey the court order restraining the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, from parading himself as a party member, saying it was fraudulently obtained.
The development comes in the wake of an ex parte order granted by a Kano State High Court on Wednesday.
The court also ordered that Ganduje should henceforth desist from presiding over all affairs of the National Working Committee of the party.
The application granted by Justice Usman Na’abba followed an ex parte motion filed by Dr. Ibrahim Sa’ad on behalf of two executive members of Ganduje’s ward, Dawakin-Tofa Local Government Area, the Assistant Secretary, Laminu Sani and Legal Adviser, Haladu Gwanjo (plaintiffs), who were part of the nine ward executives who suspended Ganduje on Monday.
The court directed the four parties (respondents) joined in the matter, including the APC, NWC, APC Kano State Working Committee, and Ganduje, to henceforth, maintain status quo ante belum as of April 15, 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit on April 30, 2024.
But the NWC of the ruling party kicked against the exparte order on Wednesday, vowing that it will neither respect nor obey it because it was unlawful.
Addressing journalists after Ganduje met with his Kano wards executive members, the National Legal Adviser of the APC, Prof Abdulkareem Kana, said they are convinced it was unlawfully 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 immediately filed a complaint to the police and have copies of it served to the IGP, urging them to investigate the individuals behind it, especially as all the major stakeholders have 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 also heard about it (exparte order) this afternoon. But we are yet to see the court order they used the same fraudulent document to obtain. Whatever order that emanates from such a document will also be an order obtained by fraud.
“All of us know that an order obtained by fraud is unlawful, and we are not going to recognise, respect, or obey it. The individuals behind it are not from the APC. We don’t know them, and that remains our position. In addition to the complaint we have made to the police, the Ganduje Ward exco will visit the National Judicial Council to submit the petition against the judge that gave the order.”