•PDP national secretariat, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has announced its decision to discontinue a lawsuit it instituted against the Nigeria Police over the blockade and occupation of its national secretariat, citing deep-seated concerns about fairness and impartiality in the handling of the matter.
The party said the legal action, which sought a court order compelling the police to remove the barricade around the secretariat, vacate the premises and hand it back to what it described as the legitimately elected leadership of the party, had been formally withdrawn in line with existing court rules, reports Daily Independent.
The disclosure was made yesterday in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Comrade Ini Ememobong, who explained that the decision was neither accidental nor impulsive, but rooted in the party’s growing mistrust of the judicial process as it relates to the case.
According to the party, the notice of discontinuance was filed in respect of suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/2520/2025, which had been instituted against the Nigeria Police at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
“Today, we filed a notice of discontinuance in suit FHC/ABJ/CS/2520/2025, which we filed against the Nigeria Police seeking an order of the court directing the police to remove their blockade, vacate our secretariat, and hand same over to us, as the legitimately elected leadership of the party.
“This case was assigned by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to Justice Joyce Abdulmalik. Before this suit, we had earlier written to the Chief Judge complaining about the obvious partiality of three out of the twelve judges of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
“In the said letter, we had exhaustively expressed our doubt and complete lack of faith in their capacity to fairly dispense justice in matters where PDP is involved.”
The party said it was surprised that despite formally notifying the Chief Judge of its reservations about certain judges, the case was still assigned to Justice Abdulmalik, one of the judges it had raised concerns about.
“Despite this information, the Chief Judge still assigned our case to her. When we appeared in the matter, we filed a motion for recusal asking that Justice Abdulmalik recuses herself from the matter and return the file to the CJ for reassignment.”
The PDP said its concerns were further heightened by the manner in which the court chose to proceed after the motion for recusal was filed.
The PDP further explained that, “Rather than do the needful which is to take the motion, and rule on it, the Judge ruled that she will manage the case in a way convenient for her, which is to take the all motions (including the motion for recusal) alongside the hearing of the case and at the point of judgement, give her ruling on the motion for recusal before the judgement. This in our view, defeats fair hearing as we have indicated our complete loss of trust in her ability to be fair in the matter, or any other matter concerning the PDP.”
Against this backdrop, the party said it elected to activate the provisions of the Federal High Court rules that allow a claimant to withdraw a case without first seeking the leave of court, provided the withdrawal is done within a specified period.
The party said “To this end, we filed a notice of discontinuance as provided for in Order 50 Rule 2(1) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019, which entitles a plaintiff to withdraw a suit without the leave of the court within fourteen days of the receipt of the last defendant’s statement of defence. It is on record that we filed the notice of discontinuance three days after the statement of defence of the last defendant was filed and served, therefore being securely within the provisions of the rules.”
However, the PDP said even this procedural step did not unfold as expected in court, further reinforcing its fears about bias.
“Today, after our counsel informed the Court of our intention to discontinue citing the relevant rules, the judge listened to arguments by all the counsel in the matter and ruled, dismissing instead of striking out our case. This again exacerbates our party’s subsisting fear about the impartiality of the court.”
While stressing that it remains committed to respecting the judiciary as an institution, the PDP said it felt compelled to publicly restate its position in defence of democratic norms and judicial independence.
The party said it would continue to hold judges in high esteem, but urged members of the Bench to remain above political influence, recalling the caution once issued by a respected jurist of the Supreme Court.
“We will continue to have respect for our judges and the judiciary generally, which is why we want to sincerely remind them of the immortal advice of Justice Niki Tobi JSC (as he then was), “the need for Nigerian judges to maintain a very big distance from politics and politicians. Our constitution forbids any mingling.
It stated that As Judges, we must obey the Constitution. The two professions do not meet and will never meet at all in our democracy in the discharge of their functions… the expressions, politician and Judge are opposites, so to say, in their functional contents… their waters must never meet in the same way Rivers Niger and Benue meet at the confluence near Lokoja. If they meet, the victim will be democracy most of the time, and that will be bad for sovereign Nigeria… and so Judges should, on no account, dance to the music played by politicians because it will completely destroy their role as independent umpires in the judicial process.”
