PDP urges court to strike out Atiku loyalists’ suit

Posted by admin Latest Politics, Party Politics, Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

The Peoples Democratic Party has asked an Abuja High Court to strike out a suit by some aggrieved members, i who want President Goodluck Jonathan barred from contesting the presidential election under its platform.

The plaintiffs, Ambassador Yahaya Kwande, Mr. Dubem Onyia and Alhaji Lawal Kaita, who were said to be loyal to ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar had, urged the court to restrain the PDP and its national chairman, Chief Okwesileze Nwodo, from presenting Jonathan as their candidate for the April presidential election.

The Abubakar loyalists are also asking the court to stop INEC from accepting Jonathan as the party’s presidential candidate for the election.

But the PDP in a preliminary Objection filed by its lawyer, Mr. Joe-Kyari Gadzama (SAN), claimed that the plaintiffs lacked the requisite legal standing to institute the action, adding that there was no reasonable cause of action against the party.

Copies of the PDP’s objection were made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday.

According to Gadzama the suit is an abuse of court process, saying that the issue of nominating or electing who should be a party’s presidential candidate is an intra-party affair for which the PDP had various administrative and legal mechanisms, which were yet to be exhausted by the plaintiffs.

The senior advocate added that the exhaustion of these administrative and legal mechanisms constitutes a condition precedent before legal action could be commenced.

He said, “The action is premature, non-justiciable and this honourable court is functus officio having determined the same issue in an earlier suit (suit no FCT/CV/2425/2010 (Sani Aminu Dutsinma -v- PDP & Anor). The action ought to have been commenced by a writ of summons.

The PDP had also in a four-paragraph affidavit in support of its preliminary objection, alleged that the party’s constitution stipulated that aggrieved members of the party must exhaust all its remedies as provided before resorting to litigation.

It added that it was an offence punishable by disciplinary actions for its members to ignore these remedies and proceed to court.

The plaintiffs had dragged the PDP; Nwodo Jonathan and INEC before court, seeking an order stopping the PDP and INEC from fielding and accepting Jonathan as the party’s presidential candidate in the April, 2011 presidential election.

They had claimed that by virtue of sections 13 and 15(a), (c) and (f) of the 3rd schedule of the 1999 constitution, section 86(1) and (2) and 67(9) and (10) of the Electoral Act, 2010, INEC is bound to compel PDP to comply with the provisions of Article 7.2(c) of its constitution, 2009 as amended.

They urged the court to declare that by virtue of the provisions of sections 14(3) and 223(2)(b) of the 1999 constitution, section 87(9) and (10) of the Electoral Act 2010 and Articles 2and 7.2 (c) of PDP’s constitution and the resolution of the national caucus of the party reached on December 2, 2002, President Jonathan cannot contest the 2011 presidential election on the platform of the PDP since he is not a Northerner.

They also want the court to declare that PDP was bound to allow a candidate from the Northern geo-political zone to contest for presidency in 2011 presidential election so as to complete the zone’s eight years slot in producing candidate for the election into the office of the president.

The case has been adjourned till January 4.

– Punchwp_posts