Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is currently experiencing an internal crisis that does not appear to be going away anytime soon. Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has filed a lawsuit against the party’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and Aminu Tambuwal regarding the way the primary election was handled in Abuja on May 28 and May 29, 2022.
Wike and PDP leader Newgent Ekamon filed the lawsuit together.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, is designated as the second respondent in the lawsuit with the filing number FHC/ABJ/CS/782/2022, with the PDP identified as the first respondent. Wike and Ekamon are identified as the plaintiffs, while Tambuwal and Atiku are designated as the third and fourth respondents, respectively.
According to Track News, at the PDP presidential primary, Tambuwal pleaded for the delegates’ votes when addressing them, but later asked them to support Atiku.
Atiku received 371 votes in the primaries, compared to Wike’s 237 and Bukola Saraki’s 70.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to rule on eight grounds in the lawsuit, including whether the PDP’s alleged transfer of Tambuwal’s votes to Atiku was invalid and unconstitutional.
They asked the court to rule on whether Tambuwal lost his right to vote when he resigned in favor of Atiku.
He requested the court to rule on whether Tambuwal “deserved to forfeit his votes having stood down during the primaries.”
The court should provide nine reliefs, including a ruling that the supposed transfer of Tambuwal’s votes to Atiku is null and void, Wike and Ekamon argued, should these issues be decided in their favor.
In addition, they demanded a statement that the PDP committed negligence and bad faith by giving Atiku the governor of Sokoto’s primary vote.
In their request, they asked the court to “cancel the transfer of votes and a corresponding injunction restraining the third respondent’s (Tambuwal’s) withdrawal in the primary was done after voting had begun.”
Then, they argued that the court should direct INEC to strike Atiku’s name from “its list of candidates in the 2023 presidential election” and compel a recount of the votes from the primary that took place on May 28 and May 29.
Additionally, the applicants ask the court to issue an order “directing the first respondent (PDP) to declare the second applicant (Wike), a presidential aspirant in the May 28 and May 29 primary, as the winner of the aforesaid primary with a corresponding order directing the first respondent (PDP) to forward his name as the candidate to contest the presidential election in 2023”
