Convention fallout: Adedoja sues PDP over exclusion from bailout list
One of the National Chairmanship aspirant for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at the just concluded convention, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja has dragged the party to court for excluding his name from the ballot list.
Adedoja in a Press Conference on Monday in Abuja said that he transversed the length and breath of the country, trying to woe delegates to support his candidature but discovered that the party’s leadership has excluded him from the contest.
He said that he made several attempts to draw the attention of the convention Chairman, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to the anomaly which he promised to rectify before the commencement of voting but expressed shock that nothing was done to include him in the ballot box.
Adedoja reported that his counsel, Messrs Ricky Tarfa & Co. has filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja to seek redress, and to, among other things “declare the election of the national Chairman of the PDP held at Eagle Square in Abuja on December 09, 2017 null and void.”
He equally asked the court to declare as null and void any document submitted by PDP to INEC and as well as cancel the outcome of the said election and order the conduct of another elective convention within 30 days of its nullification.
He equally called on the court to restrain “INEC from recognizing Uche Secondus as the National Chairman of PDP”.
He said, “I went to the convention for the position of national chairman of the party with the strong believe that the party needed a chairman with wide experience, accountability across Nigeria, integrity and a man with fresh and innovative ideas with a view of bringing intellectualism to the governance of the party.
“Surprisingly, on the election day of December 09, 2017, my name was deliberately excluded from the national Chairmanship contestant posted on the ballot boxes /cubicles meant for the election of national chairman of the party, thereby, willfully and unlawfully excluded me from participating in the said election of national chairman of the party that took place on December 09, 2017.
“This is in flagrant violation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended); the electoral act, 2010 (as amended); the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party and the guidelines for the conduct of the 2017 national convention of the party” he stated.
Lamenting on the zero vote he scored during the election as he was not a delegate for the election, he said,
“Having built a political career for 14 years, the declaration of a zero (0) scored by PDP credited to me has embarrassed and maligned me and brought great ridicule to my political standing and goodwill nationally and internationally since the announcement of the result. I have suffered psychological trauma as a result of the public ridicule the election result has caused me, my family members, friends and associates” he said.
He went further to demand for “appropriate compensation for damages, ridicule, embarrassment and disrepute brought to my name as a result of my willful exclusion from participating in the election resulting to zero (0) score credited to my name which is now in public domain.”
He agreed that he signed the peace pact where aspirants pledged to accept the outcome of the election but said that the process was not free, fair and credible hence his reasons for seeking redress in court.
He added that the PDP Reconciliation Committee did not pay him a visit, explaining that they scheduled to visit him on a date that was not convenient and he gave them another date and they are to get back to him.
Nine aspirants contested for the position of the National Chairman where Uche Secondus scored 2,000 votes, Tunde Adeniran 203 votes, Raymond Dokoesi 66 and Taoheed Ladoja scored 0.
Other aspirants who stepped down were Chief Bode George, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Jimi Agbaje, Rashede Ladoja and Olusegun Aderemi.
Daily Times Newspaper, Tuesday, December 19, 2017
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