The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seemed not to be ending any time soon as the former presidential aspirant and Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has dragged the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and Governor Aminu Tambuwal to court over the conduct of the presidential primary election in May.
Wike and a PDP chieftain, Newgent Ekamon are listed as the plaintiffs and in the originating summons, the PDP is listed as the first respondent while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the second respondent. Tambuwal and Atiku are listed as the third and fourth respondents respectively.
In the originating summons, Wike and his co-applicant asked the court to determine eight issues including whether the purported transfer of Tambuwal’s votes to Atiku by the PDP was illegal and void.
Wike and his plaintiff also asked the court to determine if Tambuwal lost his claim to votes the moment he stepped down for Atiku.
He asked the court to determine whether Tambuwal “having stepped down during the primaries ought to lose his votes.”
Wike and Ekamon argued that should these issues be determined in their favour, the court should grant nine reliefs including a declaration that the purported transfer of Tambuwal’s votes to Atiku be declared null and void.
They are also asking the court to declare that the PDP acted negligently and in bad faith by assigning the Sokoto governor’s votes to Atiku at the primary.
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.”
The applicants also prayed the court to declare that the PDP and Atiku took undue advantage of Tambuwal’s withdrawal when they allowed the Sokoto governor to persuade delegates to vote for the former Vice-President in the primary.
In the court document, Wike and Ekamon also asked the court to order INEC to reject or remove Atiku from “its list of candidates in the 2023 presidential election.”
Recall that at the party’s primary election held in May 29, 2022 Atiku Abubakar polled 371 votes while Wike and Bukola Saraki got 237 and 70 votes respectively
Interestingly, Tanbuwal stepped down and asked delegates to vote for Atiku instead.