In a unanimous decision by the seven-man panel, led by the
Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, the apex court held that
Abegunde's defection could not be justified since his excuse of purported
division in the Labour Party was not in existence in the 'national structure'
of the party.
The court noted that the division and factionalisation, cited by Abegunde as his excuse for abandoning the LP, was only at the state level.
The court noted that the division and factionalisation, cited by Abegunde as his excuse for abandoning the LP, was only at the state level.
Justice Musa Muhammad, who read the lead judgment, held that
only a 'division' that makes it 'impossible or impracticable' for the party to
function, by virtue of the provision in Section 68(1)(g) of the constitution,
justifies a person's defection to another party.
Abegunde had defected from LP to the ACN in 2011, and in a
bid to pre-empt the party from recalling him, filed a suit at the Federal High
Court.
He lost the case at the Federal High Court and the Court of
Appeal and subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court.
No comments:
Post a Comment