Justice Ignatius Agube To PDP: Stop Washing Your Dirty Linen In Public

A Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ignatius Agube, who is on the panel examining the Peoples Democratic Party’s ticket for the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State, said on Friday that if PDP members had resolved their issues internally, they would not be washing their dirty linen in public.

He said the party’s failure to internalise democracy within its fold over the years was the cause of its problems; saying that ordinarily, the court had no business resolving its internal disputes.

Agube called on the party to put its house in order and stop belabouring the court with its problems.

He said this while reacting to issues generated during the Friday’s proceedings, when two lawyers representing the Ahmed Makarfi and Ali Modu Sheriff factions of the party rose to make conflicting prayers in respect of the appeal filed by the Makarfi camp.

Agube said, “I have stressed this fact before now. I said in Kwara and Yobe that there was need for the PDP to internalise democracy.

“If they had resolved their issues internally, they would not be here washing their dirty linen in public. Ordinarily, the courts have no business resolving your internal disputes.”

Acting on the orders made by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja on June 29 and October 14, 2016, the Independent National Electoral Commission had dropped Eyitayo Jegede, who is of Makarfi’s faction, and replaced him with Jimoh Ibrahim as the PDP’s governorship candidate in the state.

There are now about six pending appeals filed by the Makarfi-led faction, and Jegede and others seeking an order compelling INEC to drop Ibrahim and reinstate Jegede as the governorship candidate of the party in the state.

During the Friday’s proceedings, Adedayo Adeyeye and Ben Obi of the Makarfi faction announced that they were representing the PDP, while another set of people, including Cairo Ojougboh (Modu Sheriff camp) also claimed to be representing the PDP, a development that infuriated Justice Agube.

The panel headed by Justice Ibrahim Saulawa of the Calabar division of the Court of Appeal, adjourned all pending applications in the appeals to November 7 for hearing.

The panel adjourned till Monday despite requests by lawyers to the appellants, including Wole Olanipekun (SAN) and Ahmed Raji (SAN) that their preliminary applications be heard promptly in view of the urgency required by the matter.