The in-house rancour within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is getting worse as the Executive Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has filed a lawsuit to challenge the way the party’s presidential primary that was won by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was conducted.
Wike filed the suit against Atiku, the Executive Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, and the PDP.
Wike and Newgent Ekamon, a PDP leader, were named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit with filing number FHC/ABJ/CS/782/2022.
In the originating summons, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is designated as the second respondent, while the PDP is designated as the first respondent. The third and fourth respondents are Aminu Tambuwal and Atiku Abubakar.
When contestants for the PDP presidency were addressing the delegates during the primary, Tambuwal first asked the delegates to support him before he later came back to ask them to support Atiku.
Atiku garnered 371 votes in the primaries, while Wike recorded 237 and Bukola Saraki got 70 votes.
After the convention, Iyorchia Ayu, the PDP National Chairman, referred to Tambuwal as the “hero of the convention.”
The plaintiffs are asking the court to determine whether Tambuwal lost his claim to votes when he stepped down for Atiku.
If the resolution of these disputes favours them, they want the court to give nine reliefs which include a ruling that the transfer of Tambuwal’s votes to Atiku was unlawful.
They are also asking for a ruling that the PDP committed negligence and bad faith by awarding Atiku the votes cast by Tambuwal in the primaries.
They prayed the court to “cancel the transfer of votes and a corresponding order restraining the 3rd respondent (Tambuwal’s) withdrawal in the primary was done after voting had commenced.”
Furthermore, the applicants requested that the court rule that the PDP and Atiku abused the situation that Tambuwal’s withdrawal created by allowing Tambuwal to influence delegates to support the former Vice-President during the primaries.
Wike and Ekamon are also requesting that the court order INEC to remove Atiku’s name from “its list of candidates in the 2023 presidential election” or reject him outrightly.
They are also requesting a court order ordering the PDP to recount the votes from the May 28 and May 29 primaries.
Lastly, they are seeking an order of the court “directing the 1st respondent (PDP) to declare the 2nd 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 1st respondent (PDP) to forward his name as the candidate to contest the presidential election in 2023.”
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