Wike asks court to declare him PDP presidential candidate — and disqualify Atiku

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Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state, has taken former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto governor, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to court over the conduct of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election.

According to The Punch, Wike and Newgent Ekamon, a PDP chieftain, asked the court to order INEC to remove Atiku from “its list of candidates in the 2023 presidential election”.

In May, Wike lost the party’s presidential ticket to Atiku after Tambuwal stepped down for the former vice-president and asked his supporters to vote for him.

While the former vice-president secured 371 votes to become PDP’s standard bearer, Wike secured 237 votes at that exercise to come second.

The outcome of the primary election led to a crisis within the party.

In the suit, Wike and Ekamon, plaintiffs, asked a federal high court in Abuja to determine if the transfer of Tambuwal’s votes to Atiku is legal.

They asked the court to declare that the PDP was wrong to assign Tambuwal’s votes to the former vice-president.

The plaintiffs asked the court to direct “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”.

The development comes after Atiku and Wike tried to mend fences at a meeting brokered by Jerry Gana, former minister and PDP board of trustees (BoT) member in Abuja, last week.

Kelvin Ebiri, chief press secretary (CPS) to Wike, is yet to respond to an enquiry sent to him about the development.