Bid to stop PDP convention suffers setback

Okey Muogbo, Abuja - 05.03.2008

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members who went to court to stop the national convention of the party had a setback on Tuesday as the High Court in Abuja said the parties to the case have not been properly served. Consequently, the court adjourned the case to Friday.

The more serious setback was that the court would only hear a motion to vary the order for substituted service which the court noted was no longer tenable in view of the fact that most of the respondents listed in the suit were not properly served by the plaintiff’s counsel.

Presiding judge, Justice Ishaaq Bello, had granted an order of substituted service to the plaintiffs to serve the seven respondents with copies of the suit through the national headquarters of PDP in Abuja.

Since not all the respondents could be reached through the PDP office, the court noted that there was need to make a fresh order varying the earlier order made for substituted service.

Before the ruling, the court had taken arguements from counsel to the second to the sixth defendants, Mark Jacob and plaintiffs’ counsel, Festus Keyamo

One of the reasons the court wanted to vary the method of service was that some of the respondents were sued in their personal capacity not in their official capacity.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo (third respondent and chairman, Board of Trustees of PDP) had his personal name mentioned first before the appellation instead of his appelation first.

Chief Iroha C.Iroha and Hajia Ceceko Asmau Ahmed went to court seeking to stop the national convention of the party to be held on Saturday on the ground that it was not properly convoked.