A Benue state high court in Gboko has dismissed a suit seeking to set aside the suspension of Iyorchia Ayu as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Delivering a ruling on Thursday, D.M Igyuse, the presiding judge, described the suit as an abuse of the court process.
One Nongo Ordue filed the case for the 17-member executive of Ayu’s Igyorov council ward of Gboko local government area.
Aside from seeking to void the suspension, the plaintiff also asked the court to reinstate Ayu as the national chairman of the PDP.
However, Clement Mue, counsel to the PDP, submitted that the suit constituted an abuse of the court process.
Mue said a similar case filed before a high court in Makurdi had sufficiently addressed the issues raised by the plaintiff.
In the suit marked MHC/85/2023 cited by the PDP lawyer, Maurice Ikpambese, a high court judge, held that Ayu could no longer hold the office as the national chairman, having lost his party membership at his ward.
Mue informed the court that Ayu had since filed an appeal against the decision, which is yet to be determined.
He said hearing and determining the present suit would amount to sitting on an appeal against the court’s earlier decision.
In his judgment, Igyuse pointed out that the plaintiffs had filed a similar claim in a suit marked GHC/36/2023 between themselves as plaintiffs, including Ayu, who was the 18th complainant.
The judge noted that the said suit was struck out by the high court 3, Gboko, on June 27.
Consequently, the judge dismissed the case, describing it as “the worst form of abuse of court process”.
