Ibadan-born Professor Taoheed Adedoja has gone to court to challenge the election that produced Prince Uche Secondus as chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Adedoja, who is one of the candidates that contested for the position approached a Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking the nullification Secondus’ election. In the suit filed on his behalf by Rickey Tarfa & Co., Adedoja prayed the court to declare the election of Secondus as national chairman of PDP null and void. The complainant also prayed the court to declare as null and void any documents submitted by the leadership of the PDP to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recognising Secondus as the party’s national chairman.
Adedoja also asked the court for the cancellation of the national chairmanship election held on Saturday December 09, 2017 at Eagle Square, Abuja, where Seconsus emerged as chairman.
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. Through his lawyers, Adedoja similarly asked the court to restrain the INEC from recognising Uche Secondus as national chairman of the PDP. Adedoja said his name was unlawfully excluded from the ballot paper as one of the candidates vying for the position of chairman. He averred that excluding 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.
According to him, 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. Adedoja also averred that he drew the attention of the chairman of the convention planning committee, Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, to the error. But, according to him, his complaint was ignored by Okowa and other organisers of the convention, a situation which, he said, caused his loss at the election because those that wanted to vote for him could not find his name on the ballot paper. Addressing reporters in Abuja yesterday, Adedoja said:
“I have suffered psychological trauma as a result of the public ridicule the election result has caused me, my family members, friends and associates.
“My lawyers are demanding 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 in zero score credited to my name, which is now in public domain.”
Listed as defendants in the suit are Okowa, Secondus, INEC and the PDP. No date has been fixed for the hearing.
