More troubles for PDP as Adedoja approaches court for accelerated hearing of his suit

Less than a week after the defection of foundation members of the Peoples Democratic Party including Professors Tunde Adeniran and Jerry Gana to the Social Democratic Party (SDP); another chieftain of the party, Professor Taoheed Adedoja has approached a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, seeking an accelerated hearing of the suit he filed against the election of Prince Uche Secondus as the national chairman of the party.

The lawyers to Professor Adedoja, one of the aggrieved PDP national chairmanship aspirants at the December 9, 2017 convention the party, Messrs Rickey Tarfa & co, on Monday approached the Court to request an accelerated hearing to an earlier suit filed on December 18, 2017 with Suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/1255/2017 on behalf of its client, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja whose name was “unlawfully excluded from participating in the December 9 national chairmanship election of the PDP.”

According to Adedoja in a chat with Vanguard yesterday, “All the defendants/respondents in this case including Prince Uche Secondus, The PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had long been served with the originating processes in the earlier suit.

“The abridgement of time sought by Rickey Tarfa is to enable the case to be heard by the Federal High Court expeditiously  as the aim of the suit bothers wholly on the right of Adedoja to participate in the said convention coupled with the need to urgently determine the right of the parties in the suit, to enable INEC deal with the valid and authentic national chairman of PDP with respect to the scheduled conduct of any primary election or any activity of the party requiring any correspondence with INEC.”

Adedoja had in an earlier chat with journalists in Abuja, expressed angst at the zero (0) score credited to him as a national chairmanship candidate at the convention, insisting he was maligned and embarrassed as a result. According to him, the announcement of the result has left him, family members, friends and political associates shattered with a “Psychological trauma,” urging the court to swing into action without further delay.

A political associate of Adedoja who does not want his name in print also expressed worry at the inability of the Governor Seriake Dickson reconciliation committee to reach out to the former Minister of Sports, adding that the aloofness of the National Working Committee (NWC) on pending serious issues could spell doom for the party in the months ahead.

“We believe the assignment given to Governor Dickson is a noble one but it is difficult to explain the reason for his inability to meet the Professor up till now. This is dangerous and one can only hope that Secondus and other NWC members know what they are doing,” he said.

On his part, Yusuf Ibrahim, one of the national coordinators in the Adedoja’s chairmanship campaign train, urged the PDP to find a political solution to the issue, arguing that the delay in doing so could affect the chances of the party at the polls.