The Peoples Democratic Party has explained why it withdrew its suit against the Nigeria Police before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja, citing concerns over impartiality and fair hearing.
In a press statement issued on Friday and signed by the party National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong, the party said it filed a notice of discontinuance in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/2520/2025, which it instituted against the Nigeria Police to compel the removal of a police blockade, the vacation of its national secretariat, and the handover of the premises to what it described as the legitimately elected leadership of the party.
The PDP stated that the case was assigned by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to Justice Abdulmalik, despite an earlier letter written by the party to the Chief Judge expressing concern over what it described as the obvious partiality of three out of the 12 judges of the Federal High Court in Abuja in matters involving the PDP.
According to the statement, the party had clearly conveyed its “doubt and complete lack of faith” in the ability of those judges to fairly adjudicate PDP-related cases.
It said that despite this communication, the case was still assigned to Justice Abdulmalik.
The party disclosed that upon appearing in court, it filed a motion requesting that Justice Abdulmalik recuse herself from the matter and return the case file to the Chief Judge for reassignment.
However, the PDP alleged that instead of hearing and ruling on the recusal motion, the judge decided to take all pending applications, including the motion for recusal, alongside the substantive case and rule on them at the point of judgment.
The PDP argued that this approach undermined its right to fair hearing, noting that it had already expressed a total loss of confidence in the judge’s ability to be impartial in the matter and in other cases concerning the party.
The statement explained that the party consequently filed a notice of discontinuance in line with Order 50 Rule 2(1) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019, which allows a plaintiff to withdraw a suit without the leave of court within fourteen days of receiving the statement of defence of the last defendant.
It added that the notice of discontinuance was filed three days after the statement of defence of the last defendant was served, stressing that the action was well within the provisions of the law.
The PDP further alleged that after its counsel informed the court of its intention to discontinue the suit and cited the relevant rules, the court, after hearing arguments from all counsel, dismissed the case instead of striking it out, a decision the party said deepened its concerns about the court’s impartiality.
While reaffirming its respect for the judiciary, the PDP said it deemed it necessary to remind judges of the warning issued by the late Justice Niki Tobi, JSC, on the need for judges to remain distant from politics.
The party quoted the jurist as saying, “the need for Nigerian judges to maintain a very big distance from politics and politicians. Our constitution forbids any mingling. As Judges, we must obey the Constitution. The two professions do not meet and will never meet at all in our democracy in the discharge of their functions… the expressions, politician and Judge are opposites, so to say, in their functional contents… their waters must never meet in the same way Rivers Niger and Benue meet at the confluence near Lokoja. If they meet, the victim will be democracy most of the time, and that will be bad for sovereign Nigeria… and so Judges should, on no account, dance to the music played by politicians because it will completely destroy their role as independent umpires in the judicial process.”
The party concluded by expressing the hope that politics and justice would not intersect and that judges would not “dance to the drumbeats of politicians.”
