The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged bias in the dismissal of its suit challenging the blockade of Wadata Plaza, its National Secretariat located in Zone 5, Abuja.
The party said although it had withdrawn the case, the manner in which it was dismissed by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja, raised concerns about impartiality.
In a statement issued on Friday, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Comrade Ini Ememobong, said the party had already filed a notice of discontinuance in suit FHC/ABJ/CS/2520/2025 against the Nigeria Police.
According to him, the suit sought an order directing “the police to remove their blockade, vacate our secretariat, and hand same over to us, as the legitimately elected leadership of the party.”
Ememobong explained that the PDP, under the leadership of Tanimu Turaki, was uncomfortable that the case was assigned by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to Justice Abdulmalik, whom the party had previously accused of bias.
The party said it had earlier expressed doubt and lack of faith in her capacity to fairly dispense justice in matters involving the PDP, but despite its protest, the Chief Judge still assigned the case to her.
“When we appeared in the matter, we filed a motion for recusal asking that Justice Abdulmalik recuses herself from the matter and return the file to the CJ for reassignment,” the statement said.
The PDP alleged that instead of taking the motion and ruling on it, the judge decided to proceed differently.
The party said she ruled that she would manage the case in a manner convenient to her by taking all motions, including the motion for recusal, alongside the substantive hearing and deliver her ruling on the recusal application at the point of judgement.
“This in our view, defeats fair hearing as we have indicated our complete loss of trust in her ability to be fair in the matter, or any other matter concerning the PDP. To this end, we filed a notice of discontinuance as provided for in Order 50 Rule 2(1) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019.”
At the resumed hearing, Ememobong said after PDP counsel informed the court of the decision to discontinue the case and cited the relevant rules, the judge listened to arguments from all counsel before ruling by “dismissing instead of striking out our case. This again exacerbates our party’s subsisting fear about the impartiality of the court.”
The PDP further stated that it remained committed to the principle that politics and justice should not intersect and prayed that “our judges do not dance to the drumbeats of politicians.”
