Wike sues Atiku, PDP, asks court to declare him presidential candidate.
The crisis in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is getting deeper as Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike has dragged the party and its presidential candidate Abubakar Atiku to court over the conduct of its presidential primary held on May 29, 2022.
Wike is asking the court to order the party and INEC to declare him as the presidential candidate of the party in 2023 presidential election.
The plaintiffs; Wike and a PDP chieftain, Newgent Ekamon, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/782/2022, are asking the court to determine eight issues.
In the originating summons, Wike and Ekamon is asking the court to determine whether the purported transfer of Sokoto state governor Aminu Tambuwal’s votes to Atiku by the party was illegal and void.Atiku had polled 371 votes while Wike got 237 votes at the presidential primary.
Tambuwal had asked the delegates to vote for him when aspirants were asked to address the party. He, however returned later to ask the delegates to transfer his votes to Atiku.
Ekamon in his affidavit, said Tambuwal withdrew from the contest after voting had started and directed that his votes be transferred to Atiku.
Wike and Ekamon are asking 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.”
They are asking the court to cancel the transfer of votes by Tambuwal after voting had started.
Wike and Ekamon asked the court to order INEC to remove Atiku from “its list of candidates in the 2023 presidential election.”
