The All Progressives Congress, APC, says the former governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje remains its national chairman.

The National Publicity Secretary of Felix Morka stated this in an interview on Arise Television on Thursday.

Morka said the ruling party will not honour the initial court order affirming Ganduje’s suspension as national chairman.

He said the national chairman of the party has not been served any summon concerning the initial court order restraining him.

Morka noted that the party has thrown its weight behind the recent Kano Federal High Court ruling calling for a stay of the order.

Recall that the political drama in Kano took a fresh twist on Wednesday after a Federal High Court presided over by another judge, Justice A.M Liman, halted the purported suspension of Ganduje by his ward executives in Dawakin Tofa Local Government area of the state.

The ruling was given after Ganduje filed an exparte motion seeking to enforce his fundamental right to a fair hearing.

The respondents in the application are the Nigerian Police, Department of State Services, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and nine other individuals.

Reacting to the development, Morka said it was the right thing to do on the basis that those who masterminded the suspension were not recognised members of the party.

He said, “The order issued by the first court was very disturbing, for some reasons. First, the plaintiffs who purportedly filed that action are not recognised members of our party and therefore shouldn’t have the locus standi to invoke the authority of the court to make any such order.

“Secondly, every lawyer in this country is aware that from the Supreme Court up to the NJC, there is this cautiousness that judges don’t make orders that are far-reaching in effect on an exparte motion or application.

“When you see the nature of the case and observe it is likely to cause the defendant substantial exposure to ridicule and justice, you put that defendant on notice within the context of even that exparte application; so that the justice of the matter can be met.

“But this judge, in this case upheld the illegal suspension of a national chairman, did so on an ex parte application, which shouldn’t really be.

“Being a lawyer, I have a lot of respect for the court and won’t say much. But be that as it may, as I speak, that order of the Kano State High Court purportedly affirming the suspension of our national chairman has not been served on the party and the national chairman himself.

“So this conversation and every other one relating to this has really been based on media reports. In other words, we do not have legal notice of that order. So the question of how we react to it or whether we will respect it or not is out of it because we have not been served.

“In the meantime, this Federal Court has issued a prohibition, an order restraining the impersonators who are the plaintiffs in that matter from enforcing that suspension.

“We are right now in the stage of status quo where we were before the purported suspension of Ganduje as the national chairman. He still remains our national chairman.”

An Abuja Federal High Court has discharged and acquitted a former Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, Mohammed Bello Adoke, of money laundering charges.

Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, upheld Adoke’s “no case” submission against the money laundering charges against him.

In 2017, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had dragged Adoke and Abubakar Aliyu, a property developer, to court for allegedly laundering about N300 million.

While the EFCC admitted before Ekwo that it was a mortgage that Adoke took from Unity Bank, it alleged before Justice Kutigi that the money was a bribe from the sale of the oil block by Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd in 2011.

On March 28, 2024, Kutigi pointed out the contradiction while dismissing the charges against Adoke and other defendants, chiding the EFCC for wasting the court’s time for four years.

But on Friday, Justice Ekwo said the EFCC did not provide any evidence to prove the essential elements of the offence against Adoke, who was listed as the first defendant.

Ekwo upheld the no-case submission while discharging and acquitting him of the charges.

The judge, however, ruled that Aliyu, the second defendant, has to open his defence because he has a case to answer.

Police operatives from the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have apprehended a driver for cramming 15 children into a Volkswagen Passat car in Lagos.

The vehicle was reported by concerned citizens on the Lekki–Ikoyi Link Bridge at about 8pm on Sunday.

Upon intervention, the police noticed that the driver, who had been contracted to transport the children to a beach, had locked four of the children in the car trunk while 11 others were crammed together.

Preliminary investigations revealed that one child had collapsed earlier in the day due to similar transportation conditions but recovered after receiving medical attention.

The children have since been released to their parents unhurt. Suspects would be charged in court.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Adegoke Fayoade, has commended residents of Lagos State for always promptly alerting the authorities to suspicious persons/happenings.