The Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday dismissed a suit filed by Samuel Anyanwu challenging the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after he withdrew the case on the grounds that it had been overtaken by events.
Anyanwu had approached the court seeking judicial validation of his position as the national secretary of the PDP.
However, during proceedings, his counsel informed the court that his tenure in office had already expired.
Delivering the ruling, Justice Mohammed Umar struck out the case following an application by Mr Anyanwu’s lawyer, U. C. Njemanze-Aku, who said continuing with the suit would amount to a waste of judicial time.
He explained that his client’s tenure as PDP national secretary lapsed in December last year, making the issues raised in the suit no longer relevant.
“It is not proper for a matter that has been overtaken by events to continue,” Mr Njemanze-Aku told the court, adding that the application to withdraw the suit was made in the interest of justice.
The defendants in the suit included the PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Umar Damagun, a factional national chairman of the party, Sunday Udeh-Okoye, PDP National Vice Chairman (South-East), as well as Ali Odela and Setonji Koshoedo, both deputy national secretaries.
INEC’s counsel, Akintayo Balogun, opposed the withdrawal without sanctions, arguing that the suit should not have been filed in the first place.
He urged the court to dismiss the case with costs, requesting N1 million.
Other defence lawyers also sought costs ranging from N1 million to N1.5 million, maintaining that the action was unnecessary.
However, Mr Njemanze-Aku objected to the requests for costs, insisting that the withdrawal was necessitated by circumstances beyond his client’s control.
He urged the court to allow all parties to bear their respective costs, stressing that the plaintiff acted responsibly by discontinuing the suit once it became irrelevant.
After hearing arguments from all sides, Justice Umar dismissed the suit and declined to award costs to any of the parties.
According to the judge, the development that rendered the suit academic could not be blamed on any party.
“The delay is not on any of the parties. The situation made it so. For this reason, I award no cost,” the court ruled.
