After two adjournments, Appeal Court dismisses Secondus’ suit to halt PDP’s 2021 National Convention

[By VICTOR NZE]

Last hurdle against the conduct of the 2021 National Convention of the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has now been cleared as the Appeal Court sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, finally dismissed the suit filed by sacked chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus seeking to stop the political exercise from holding.

The Court turned down the application for interlocutory injunction filed by the former national chairman of the party, Uche Secondus as he sought to stop the planned National Convention of his party, as it cleared way for the conduct of PDP’s National Convention.

National Convention of the PDP is scheduled for this weekend in Abuja from October 30 to 31.

Delivering judgment in the second and concluding part of the suit which has seen two adjournments since Tuesday, the Appeal panel struck out Secondus application to stop the convention.

The three-man panel dismissed the appeal which was filed on October 14, 2021, for lacking in merit.

The judgement was read by Justice Gabriel Kolawale which was unanimously endorsed by the other two members of the panel.

The court had earlier on Tuesday, this week, fixed Thursday, to hear and determine an appeal filed by Prince Secondus, suspended former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Secondus in the appeal marked CA/PH/ 339, is asking the court to restrain the PDP from conducting its National Convention slated for October 30 and 31, 2021.

However, the court reserved its judgement on the matter as it again adjourned till Friday to give counsels an extra day to submit final applications.

Speaking through his counsel, Tayo Oyetubo (SAN), Secondus, Thursday, urged the court to preserve his rights as the National Chairman of the party by granting his application and restrain PDP from holding the convention pending the determination of the substantive suit.

He told the court that his tenure of office expires on December 8, 2021, adding that if the court does not grant his application, the party would go ahead and hold the convention as well as elect new leaders, hence destroying his right as national chairman permanently.

However, counsel to the first to fifth respondents, Henry Bello, vehemently objected, arguing that the applicant deviated from the facts of appeal in all his grounds in the amended notice of appeal, insisting that the application cannot be granted.

“The prayers made in the application by the plaintiff cannot be granted, in that the whole gamut of the five grounds of the amended notice of appeal has no iota of illusion to the national convention of the sixth respondent application.

“The appeal is a clear deviation from the fact for which this appeal was instituted, which is the national convention.

‘I urge the court to dismiss the application and award cost to the applicant for wasting the time of court,” he said.

Other respondents in the matter aligned with Bello in the submission to dismiss the case for lack of competence.

It would be recalled that on August 23, 2021, some interested members of the party instituted a suit marked PHC/2183/CS/2021 at the High Court of Rivers State, Port Harcourt Judicial Division, with Secondus and the PDP as defendants.

On September 10, 2021, the court delivered its judgment and restrained Secondus from performing the functions of the office of the national chairman of the PDP.

Secondus was suspended by his ward in Andoni district of Rivers State for anti-party activities and other gross misconduct.

Last Tuesday, the Appeal Court affirmed that order as it threw out a suit filed by Secondus challenging his removal as national Chairman of the PDP.

On Friday, with one day left to the National Convention, the Court ruled to dismiss the suit brought by Secondus, having earlier on Tuesday, affirmed his removal as National Chairman of the party, when it dismissed the suit challenging the action of the party against the embattled chairman.

Meanwhile, over 3, 000 delegates to the National Convention of the PDP have started trooping in to th nation’s capital city for the event scheduled for the Eagle Square.

This is also as the Chairman, accreditation sub-committee and Governor of Delta state, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has warned that states where there were court orders on conflicting delegates would be removed from the accreditation list and barred from participating.

Okowa, who had disclosed this in Abuja earlier Tuesday, also said the committee is putting everything together to ensure a hitch-free convention that is expected to be attended by over 3,000 delegates.

The governor confirmed that some states were in court over conflicting delegates list and assured that all issues would be resolved amicably.

“We are also trying to look at all the issues, including some people trying to stop some delegates at the court. But I think we are on top of all that, we will handle it and at the end of the day, by Thursday we will have the total accredited number of delegates. So I will give you the number of delegates when we meet on Friday morning.

“We are not worried about what is going on, we always have a way of resolving our issues and God is always with us. You can see that most of the positions and aspirants are unopposed. So that shows you that the party is on course for a successful National Convention.

“Delegates know themselves. There are no issues concerning delegates’ election. But in about one or two states we still have issues, people contending in court as to whether some elected officials at the state, whether they should be there. There is one in Ekiti state and one other state. The legal adviser will before the end of the day offer his advice on it so that we will know what to do. So I don’t think we will have any issue with that.

“We may likely not have conflicting delegates, but wherever we think that there is a court order, we have no choice than to exit those delegates. Except for the statutory delegates who by their right and positions held in the past are not by reasons of election are supposed to be delegates.”

“Our convention holds from Saturday 30th to Sunday 31st October, which is just 4 days away from today. And we do realise that if we get the process of accreditation right, we will largely have gotten the convention right. And we do not pray that we get it wrong.

“Saturday is very critical to all us. We need to understand our role, we need to come early and hope that every material that will be needed will be available at that point in time,” he said.