A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday fixed August 27 to hear a
suit against the conduct of an election into the office of the
National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Prof. Wale Oladipo, the incumbent National Secretary, has approached
the court seeking to stop the National Executive Committee from
conducting fresh election in to the office.
Giving ruling in an ex-parte motion filed by the plaintiff/applicant,
Justice A.R. Mohammed, ordered the party and all its national officers
to appear before him on the adjourned date.
Mohammed: “I have gone through the prayers, the affidavit and the
depositions, but I am mindful not to grant them without hearing from
the other parties.
“In that circumstance, all the respondents in the motion are ordered
to appear in court to say why the prayer should not be granted.”
The Chairman of the party’s Convention Organising Committee, Prof.
Jerry Gana, is also a respondent in the suit, while the Independent
National Electoral Commission is cited as nominal respondent.
Presenting the motion earlier, Baba Akinwunmi, counsel to the
applicant, said that the application was seeking an order of interim
injunction to restrain the PDP from conducting election into that
office.
Akinwunmi pleaded that the office was not vacant as the National
Executive Committee of the party reserved the position for the South
West.
According to him, upon the removal of the former National Secretary,
Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a special convention was conducted on July
13 in Ibadan, the Oyo State.
He said that his client (Oladipo) was duly elected during the
convention that was keenly contested.
Akinwumi told the court that there were moves by the national officers
of the party led by the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to
conduct election to an office that is already occupied.
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