Court dismisses Fubara Dagogo’s suit challenging APC congress, awards N20m fine

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday dismissed a suit instituted by Mr Fubara Dagogo, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), seeking to void the party’s recently conducted national congress.

Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, in a judgment, held that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the case, which bordered on the internal affairs of a political party.

Justice Abdulmalik held that issues surrounding candidates’ nomination and purchase of nomination form, including expression of interest form, are non-justiciable.

The judge, who struck out the suit, awarded a N10 million fine each against Dagogo and his lawyer, making a total of N20 million, in favour of all four defendants.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Dagogo, an aspirant in the recently concluded APC national congress, had filed the suit to challenge his alleged exclusion from the party’s national convention election.

The plaintiff, through his lawyer, Ogochukwu Onyema, named APC and Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, the party’s national chairman, as the 1st and 2nd defendants.

Dagogo also listed Victor Giadom, the party’s national vice chairman, South South, and Sulaiman Muitamma, the APC’s national organising secretary, as the 3rd and 4th defendants, respectively.

In the originating summons, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/591/2026 and dated March 22 and filed March 23 by his lawyer, Dagogo sought six reliefs.

The aggrieved aspirant prayed the court to nullify the outcome of any party’s national congress for the position of National Vice Chairman, South-South, without his physical participation.

He urged the judge to determine whether there could be a legitimate zonal congress for South-South APC with his alleged unlawful exclusion after he was duly cleared and paid for his expression of interest (EoI) and nomination forms.

He prayed the court to declare that by virtue of APC’s Payment Acknowledgement Receipt No. 26827 dated March 13 and issued to him, he is entitled to be issued with the requisite EoI and Nomination Forms as an aspirant for the position of National Vice Chairman, South-South Nigeria.

He equally prayed the court to award general damages of N100 million against the 3rd and 4th defendants for the discomfitures, embarrassments and mental torture they occasioned to him with their ill conduct.

But the APC, in its earlier preliminary objection filed by the former lawyer, Kayode Okunade, urged the court to strike out or dismiss the suit for want of jurisdiction.

Okunade also prayed the court for an order striking out the originating summons filed by Dagogo as incompetent.

The lawyer, in his eight-ground argument, said the subject matter of the suit bordered on the internal affairs of a political party, which were non-justiciable and outside the jurisdiction of the court.

He said Dagogo’s complaint, relating to non-issuance of a nomination form despite payment, concerned the conduct of the party’s congresses and pre-primary processes, which were within the exclusive domestic jurisdiction of the party.

Okunade argued that the applicant lacked the locus standi to institute the action, having not been duly recognised as a valid aspirant under the APC Constitution and Guidelines.

He said the suit was premature, the applicant having failed to exhaust the internal dispute resolution mechanisms provided under the party’s constitution.

The lawyer, who said the suit constituted an abuse of court process, aimed at inviting the court to interfere in the discretionary powers of a political party, argued that Dagogo had not disclosed any reasonable cause of action against the respondents. (NAN)

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