CIRCULAR:

PUBLIC NOTICE

UNAUTHORIZED REPRESENTATION AND HANDLING OF CASES BY LEGAL PRACTITIONERS ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE AND CONSENT OF THE PARTY.

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after a thorough deliberation, notes with disapproval the practice of certain legal practitioners appearing in Court, representing and filing Court processes purportedly on behalf of the party without the knowledge, consent and authorization of the party.

The NWC in the strongest terms rejects, condemns and completely disapproves of the act of external solicitors filing, defending or representing the party in court in any matter whatsoever, without the knowledge and authorization of the appropriate authority of the party.

The NWC holds that this practice is not only bizarre but also inexplicable, unjustifiable and completely unacceptable as it raised serious ethical issues bordering on professional misconduct.

For the avoidance of doubts, the NWC states that Article 42 of PDP’s constitution (as amended in 2017), places the exclusive responsibility of conducting litigation, prosecution, and defense of cases on behalf of the party including its organs and officials on the National Legal Adviser of the party.

Under the PDP Constitution nobody, authority, office or organ other than the National Legal Adviser has the competence to engage external solicitors to handle cases on behalf of the party. Consequently, Nobody, Authority, Office or Organ other than the National Legal Adviser can engage external solicitors on behalf of the party.

Against this backdrop, the NWC reiterates that the engagement of external solicitors to handle cases on behalf of the party must be in writing under the hand of the National Legal Adviser specifying amongst other things, the nature of the case and other terms and conditions of the engagement.

The NWC assures that the PDP is a friendly political party that values, engages and will continue to engage external solicitors on its behalf. However, such engagements must come from the relevant authority of the party.

The NWC, therefore, appeals to party members as well as legal practitioners to be guided by this accordingly as the party will not hesitate to take stringent measures should there be any infractions in this regard.

Signed:

Hon. Debo Ologunagba

National Publicity Secretary