Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will begin on Saturday following an Appeal Court judgment sitting in Port Harcourt that dismissed the appeal of the suspended national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Uche Secondus.
Secondus had sought an interim injunction to restrain the PDP from conducting its national convention.
The convention is slated for Abuja for Saturday and Sunday, October 30 and 31, 2021.
In a judgment read by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, he three-man panel dismissed the appeal filed by Secondus on October 14.
The convention is expected to lead to the election of new national officers.
But this decision did not go down well with Secondus, hence the filing of the application.
During Thursday’s proceedings, Tayo Oyetibo (SAN), counsel to Secondus, argued that refusing to grant his application to stop the PDP Convention can be likened to “pulling off the rug under the feet of the appellant”.
He said his client will be permanently denied the right to preside over or participate in the convention if the pending applications bordering on his leadership and membership status go in his favour.
But the submission was opposed by Henry Bello, counsel to the first to fifth respondents, who are the Chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party in five Local Government Areas of Rivers State.
The Chairmen are challenging Secondus’s legal right to resume as National Chairman of the PDP following his suspension from the party in his ward in Ikuru Town in Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Mr. Bello reading an excerpt of his 24-paragraph affidavit sworn to by the First respondent (one of the LGA party Chairmen), argued that the application to stop the PDP convention by Uche Secondus, was alien to the existing appeals before the court bordering on the leadership and membership of Uche Secondus in the party.
The opposition by Henry Bello was supported by the lawyer to the PDP, Sunday Ameh (SAN).
He submitted that Secondus voluntarily handed over the authorities of his office to a subordinate who has been acting lawfully as the National Chairman and is bestowed with the right to preside over the National Convention.