BY HENRY UMORU
ABUJA—ACTIVITIES were Monday crippled at the national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the national leadership of the party literarily relocated to the Court of Appeal, venue of the Presidential Election Tribunal, in solidarity with President Goodluck Jonathan.

PDP chieftains had to put off all  meetings, even as they also deferred official engagements to attend the tribunal sitting which lasted for hours as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, called several witnesses to shoot down the petition of the CPC and its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari.

Party leadership, supporters of President Jonathan, led by two members of the National Working Committee, NWC, Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali, National Publicity Secretary and the National Adviser, Chief Olusola Oke, were noticed with scores of other PDP loyalists at the venue of the tribunal sitting.

Some workers at the PDP national secretariat were also noticed at the Court of Appeal premises to give their moral support to the PDP legal team, led by J.K Gadzama, SAN.

At the resumed hearing of the petition filed by the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, over the outcome of the April presidential election, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, opened its defense, while the PDP was expected to take its turn on Thursday.

Answering questions from newsmen, one of the supporters of President Jonathan, Halimatu Garba, who noted that CPC’s petition was not only against INEC and Jonathan, stressed that it was against everyone that voted for him during the presidential election.

Garba said: “People voted and someone said we did not cast the votes and dragged President Jonathan to Tribunal. Indeed what they have invariably done is that they have dragged every Nigerian that voted for President Jonathan to the election tribunal and we are here in our numbers in solidarity with Mr. President.”