The High Court of Bayelsa State presided over by Justice Matilda Ayemieye, Yenagoa High Court has issued a fresh order of substitute service of the Democratic Party against a member of the PDP, David Taylor Fyne in case number YHC/107/2022. .
Ayemieye gave the order after his counsel, Samuel Agburak, reviewed the new reliefs sought by the claimant in an ex parte application filed on his behalf on Tuesday.
He ordered the service to be posted at the PDP secretariat in Ekeki, Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, and the party’s national secretariat premises at Wadata Plaza in Abuja.
“It is not appropriate to grant the reliefs sought by the claimant,” he said.
The judge, however, adjourned the matter to December 5, 2022 for the report of the service.
Fyne, according to the petition, said the PDP violated its constitutional provisions on zoning by allowing some people to contest the party’s presidential ticket at its national convention in Abuja in May for the 2023 general election.
Specifically, he is claiming that the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in accordance with the constitutional provisions on party zoning, should not participate in the party’s primaries.
He is offended that the party has rejected its constitution and repealed the zoning arrangement without resorting to the amendment processes outlined in the document.
Fyne, therefore, prays the court to invalidate the participation of those persons, including Abubakar, who, according to him, should not have participated in the PDP primary election for next year’s polls.
He also asks the court to cancel all the votes obtained by those people, including the PDP presidential candidate, and that only those whose participation was valid according to the constitution should be accepted as participants in the convention.
The claimant is also asking the court to nullify Abubakar’s participation and the votes he obtained, and the second runner-up, Nyesom Wike, should be named as the PDP candidate.
The claimant’s lawyer, Samuel Agbura, in an interview with our correspondent said that the PDP had nothing to do with its action.
He said: “You cannot put anything on nothing and expect it to stand. PDP put something on. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, according to the constitution of the party, should not have participated in the primaries in the first place. They have shot themselves in the foot. So they are telling the court we are doing the right thing.
“The court initially had an order to forward the proceedings of the case to the defendants. There were 20 defendants; all the presidential candidates were listed but they were named parties, because the action could proceed without them.
“So at that time the court ordered that the proceedings be served on all the defendants by publishing them in a national newspaper. But my client could not afford that.
“So my client has to go to court again through an amendment, and ask the court to strike out the names of all the other people.
“Now he is accusing PDP as representing himself and touching all members of the party.
“Therefore, based on that ground, the court issued a fresh order for service, which is that the processes should be served by affixing them in Bayelsa State (PDP Secretariat) and Wadata Plaza (PDP National Secretariat. ) in Abuja.
“We are happy that after about six months, we have overcome this hurdle of service and we hope that in a short time we will affect the service, and the business of the courts will be established for what it is.”
