The fate of the National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) scheduled for November 15 and 16 now rests on the decision of the Abuja Federal High Court presided over by Justice James Omotosho.

The case, which judgement is expected to be delivered before this month end, will also determine if the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike and his supporters will remain relevant in the party or not.

The judge at the court’s sitting last Thursday, promised to give judgement in the petition filed by Hon Austin Nwachukwu (Imo PDP chairman); Hon Amah Abraham Nnanna (AbiaPDP chairman) and Turnah Alabrah George (PDP Secretary, South-South), against the National Convention of the PDP, before the end of this month.

“In the instant case, I can assure you that the court decision will be made between now and end of October. “On the day of the judgement, parties will be given copies of the judgement. I type my own judgments by myself. So, there will be no issue of any delay”, the judge assured.

The PDP National Convention ran into troubled water after Wike’s group, who had held the party to the jugular since 2023, discovered that they had been schemed out in the control of the party’s structure.

The party outsmarted his group in various ways. First, the PDP National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, who belongs to Wike’s camp, was forced to sign all the letters relating to the convention to be submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), ahead of time.

Perhaps, the party envisaged that Anyanwu might be used to frustrate the national convention, hence the push to compel relevant party officials to sign all the letters concerning the convention, up front.

Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Senator Bala Mohammed, at the 102nd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in August, excitedly told party members, that, “all communications to INEC has been signed by our National Working Committee. “We are navigating well and working to ensure that the party remains united.”

This was a great set back to the opposition camp. The opposition group also lost out in the zoning of the National Working Committee (NWC) positions in the forthcoming National Convention. The PDP National Zoning Committee headed by Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, who resigned his membership o the party last week, had recommended that status quo be maintained in NWC positions.

That is to say, the two region – North and South – should retain the positions zoned to them during the 2021 National Convention. The committee, however, directed the regions to meet and micro-zone the positions within the respective regions.

Consequent upon this directive, the South met in Lagos two months ago, and micro-zoned the positions meant for the region. Characteristic of its position, the Wike group boycotted the regional meeting. A source told this Newspaper that despite the attempt to discredit the meeting by the group, the resolutions reached were adopted by the NEC, which met shortly thereafter.

Attempts to push forward its position by ensuring that the status quo on microzoning remains, when the group met in September, failed. The group had wanted the National Chairmanship position to remain in North Central, where it hopes to push former Benue State. Governor, Samuel Ortom to occupy it.

It had stated in a communiqué after the meeting, “we strongly insist there should be no micro-zoning. “For peace and stability, the office of the National Chairman must remain in the North-Central in line with the 2021 convention’s zoning arrangement.”

A source told this newspaper: “PDP wants to avoid a situation where elected NWC member will be loyal to an individual instead of the party. This is the problem the party is having and we don’t want that to continue in the new NWC.”

The source alleged that the party nearly failed to field candidate in the 2023 presidential election, “because one of the officers, who was supposed to sign Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s nomination forms was told not to do so. “It was only at the dying minute that the forms were signed.

If we leave the party in the hands of those whose alligence is to individuals, we will be killing the party more.” According to the source, the next PDP National Chairman is likely to come from the North West. “The party is thinking former Kano State governor (Ibrahim) Shekarau.

That is the person Bala Mohammed wants. He doesn’t want the North East to produce the National Chairman because he wants to be running mate to either (Goodluck) Jonathan or Seyi Makinde. You know PDP has zoned the presidential candidate to the South. “But the governors are still divided but it is likely to be Shekarau.

They don’t want (Ahmed) Makarfi. “For the post of National Secretary, Makinde wants someone from Oyo State to take it,” he disclosed. But the matter before the court is threatening the convention, although, party leaders are not leaving anything to chance.

Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, who told PDP members to hold him responsible if the convention failed, was in court last Tuesday.

He is expected to attend tomorrow’s sitting when the judge is likely to decide on the rightful person to represent the party in the case. PDP National Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Chris Uche, SAN, are contesting the legal representation of the party.