UPDATE- PDP convention dispute: Court fixes Oct. 31 for judgment

The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, fixed Oct. 31 for judgment in a suit seeking to stop the planned convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Justice James Omotosho fixed the date after counsel for the plaintiffs and the defence lawyers adopted their processes and presented their arguments for and against the case.

Our correspondent reports that the plaintiffs; Austin Nwachukwu (Imo PDP chairman), Amah Nnanna (Abia PDP chairman) and Turnah Alabh George (PDP Secretary, South-South), had filed the suit.

They had sued Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), PDP, Samuel Anyanwu, National Secretary of the party; Umar Bature, National Organising Secretary of the party; National Working Committee (NWC) and National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party as 1st to 6th defendants.

Others joined in the suit are Umar Damagum, the PDP National Chairman; Ali Odefa and Emmanuel Ogidi as 7th, 8th and 9th defendants respectively.

The plaintiffs had instituted the suit to stop the planned Nov. 15 and Nov. 16 National Convention of PDP scheduled for Ibadan in Oyo State where it’s new national officers are expected to be elected.

At Tuesday’s proceedings, Justice Omotosho reaffirmed that his order on maintaining status quo in respect of the convention must not be flouted by any of the parties involved in the suit.

Joseph Daudu, SAN, who represented the the plaintiffs, urged the court not to treat the complaints of the plaintiffs as internal affairs of the party but a step to enforce adherence to the 1999 Constitution, Electoral Act, 2022 and the PDP Constitution.

The senior lawyer argued that Nigeria’s constitution makes mandatory for INEC to monitor congresses of political parties before they could be valid.

He said that the complaints of the three aggrieved members was that no valid congress was conducted in the 14 states before the PDP NWC and NEC issued notice for the Nov. 16 and 17 convention.

However, the National Chairman of the party, Mr Damagum, represented by Paul Erokoro, SAN, asked the judge to decline jurisdiction on the ground that issues of convention and congresses are internal affairs of the party.

Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, who stood for the NWC and the NEC of the party, aligned with Erokoro’s submission to the effects that courts cannot inquire into the internal affairs of the party.