National Assembly (NASS) candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 general elections in Rivers State, yesterday staged a peaceful protest at the Federal High Court complex in Port Harcourt, over the refusal of Justice Stephen Daylop-Pam to recuse himself from handling a suit involving them.
Daylop-Pam is sitting over suit number FHC/PH/CS/127/2022, instituted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and 17 others, seeking to disqualify all APC NASS candidates in the state from participating in the 2023 elections.
LEADERSHIP gathered the action of the APC candidates followed Daylop-Pam’s refusal to put on record the complaints arising from petition from the defendants which was announced by Ezemonye Ezekiel-Amadi, who appeared for himself.
When the matter was mentioned in court, counsel to the PDP, Den Nwigwe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, informed the court of issues of service of court process.
But when Ezekiel-Amadi, who is also the candidate for Ikwerre-Emohua federal constituency on the APC platform reminded the judge of his and other candidates petition against him, the judge could not take record of the information but went ahead to adjourn till September 20, 2022 for hearing.
Addressing newsmen outside the courtroom in presence of other candidates, Ezekiel-Amadi said the judge’s action has again proven their earlier alarm that the judge is in a mission to allegedly destroy their political destinies.
He said, “What transpired is that once again, I brought to the attention of of His Lordship, my pending petition and supported by other defendants asking him to recuse himself and he refused to entertain it at all. Instead, he adjourned the matter to some date in September for hearing. That is distasteful to me both as a litigant and as a lawyer.
“From day one, we have been saying that he is on a mission to destroy in our political career. We have been saying that he has some vested interest in the matter. Usually, when a judge has a petition to recuse himself, that petition must be attended to.”
