A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Senator Victor Umeh, has criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over what he described as interference in the party's internal affairs, while defending the decision by the David Mark-led leadership to seek judicial redress.
Speaking on Channels Television's Politics Today on Tuesday, the lawmaker representing Anambra Central expressed concern over the lingering leadership crisis within the party and the actions taken by the electoral body.
Umeh maintained that the move by former Senate President David Mark and his team to approach the Court of Appeal was justified, particularly in light of jurisdictional concerns raised earlier in the case.
"The truth is that there is no blame on David Mark's leadership to approach the court of appeal with an interlocutory appeal on the Federal High Court's refusal to throw away the case that the court has no jurisdiction," he said.
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He stressed that once jurisdiction is questioned, it must be resolved before any substantive proceedings continue.
"The issue of jurisdiction was raised at the onset of the Federal High Court. When the issue of jurisdiction is raised, the court must take it and determine it first of all.
If the court has no jurisdiction, it has no business going into the matter ab initio. It doesn't matter how well the court tries the case; if you don't have jurisdiction, everything you do thereafter will be a nullity."
According to him, the decision by Justice Nwite to assume jurisdiction was rightly contested by Mark's leadership.
"When he assumed jurisdiction in the matter, David Mark and his leadership challenged the decision of Justice Nwite's court that he had no jurisdiction, and they were right," Umeh added.
Umeh further argued that both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal should exercise caution in matters relating to the internal workings of political parties.
"If the Court of Appeal had seen that the Federal High Court had no jurisdiction, it wouldn't have gone on this long journey.
The court would have seen that even the Court of Appeal itself has no jurisdiction to go into the matter involving the internal affairs of a political party, leadership, for example, no jurisdiction."
The controversy follows INEC's recent decision to delist David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola as the ADC's National Chairman and National Secretary. The commission said the action was in compliance with a court order directing it to maintain the status quo pending the final determination of the case at the trial court.
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