UNCERTAINTY surrounds the National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), scheduled for October 30 and 31, as an Appeal Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, is set to deliver ruling on a motion filed by suspended national chairman Uche Secondus to stop the exercise.
The court would on October 29 rule on Secondus’ application and in doing so decide whether the convention would go ahead as scheduled, or not.
Secondus had, in the motion of interim injunction filed through his lawyer Tayo Oyetibo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), prayed the court to suspend the national convention of PDP.
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Secondus also asked the court to return him to office as national chairman of the party and thereby empower him to preside over the convention.
The court had fixed October 28 to hear the motion.
After listening to parties in the suit, the three-man panel of the appeal court led by Justice Haruna Simon Isammani adjourned to October 29 to deliver its ruling.
The outcome of the ruling would determine the fate of the convention.
Secondus had filed an appeal at the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal after a Rivers State High Court restrained him from performing the functions of the national chairman of the PDP.
Specifically, Secondus is seeking an order of interim injunction restraining the PDP, its officers and representatives from holding or conducting the national convention scheduled for October 30 and 31, or on any other date, pending the hearing and final determination of the appeal.
The leaders of the PDP, including state governors and the Board of Trustees (BOT) had tried to prevail on Secondus to drop the suit to enable the party hold a hitch-free convention, but he refused, insisting on going ahead with the litigation.
Secondus was suspended through court orders after a section of PDP stakeholders, led by Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike, tried unsuccessfully to force him to resign.
He had planned to seek a second term as PDP national chairman at the convention.
The Wike camp is bent on stopping him from continuing in office as party national chairman.
Secondus had not performed the functions of the national chairman since he was suspended in August and in his absence, the party had set all motions in place for the national convention.
Already, a former Senate President Iyorchia Ayu has been chosen as the consensus candidate for national chairman and it is expected that he would be crowned at the convention.
* Apprehension at PDP headquarters
The ICIR observed that there was apprehension at the national headquarters of the PDP in Abuja on October 28 as officials and members of the party waited for the outcome of the hearing on Secondus’ appeal by the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt.
Although chairman of the PDP National Convention Planning Committee Adamawa State governor Ahmadu Fintiri had declared that the convention must proceed as scheduled, there are fears in the party that a ruling in Secondus’ favour would put the exercise on hold.
The party had set up an eminent persons committee, headed by another former Senate President David Mark, which was charged with getting party members to withdraw all pending court cases.
The committee did not succeed in the task.