By Patrick Andrew Abuja
A national chairmanship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prof Taoheed Adedoja has approached a Federal High Court in Abuja, asking for the nullification of the election of Prince Uche Secondus as the party’s national chair.
Prof. Adedoja, one of the nine candidates that contested for the national chairman of the party, said the December 9 National Convention was fraught with errors that have rubbished the credibility of the exercise. In suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1225/2017 fi led on his behalf by Messers Rickey Tarfa & Co., Adedoja prayed the court to declare the election of Secondus as national chairman of PDP null and void.
Also, the former Minister of Youth and Social Development and supervisory Minister of the Sports, prayed the court to invalidate any documents submitted by the leadership of the PDP to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recognising Prince Secondus as its national chairman.
Adedoja further asked the court for the cancellation of the national chairmanship election held on Saturday December 09, 2017 at the Eagle Square, Abuja where Secondus emerged as chairman, claiming flawed process. He prayed the court to order the conduct of another elective National Convention for the election of national chairman within 30 days of nullification of the December 9 convention.
Similarly, Adedoja asked the court to restrain INEC from recognising Secondus as national chairman of the PDP, and adduced that the exercise was fl awed because his name was unlawfully excluded from the ballot paper as one of the candidates vying for the position of chairman.
According to him, omission of his name from the ballot paper was a flagrant violation of the Electoral Act, the constitution of the PDP, the guidelines for the conduct of PDP national convention and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He claimed that the organisers of the convention had substituted his name with “Prof Taoheed Oladoja” on the ballot paper, whereas all his nomination documents submitted to the leadership of the PDP bore the name of Prof. Taoheed Adedoja.
Though he claimed to have madeformal complaint about the error to the chairman of the Convention Planning Committee, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, Adedoja said it was ignored by Okowa and other organisers of the convention. “I have suffered psychological trauma as a result of the public ridicule the election result has caused me, my family members, friends and associates.
