Aggrieved governor of Rivers State has sued former vice president Atiku Abubakar and Sokoto State governor Aminu Tambuwal, RovingNaija can report.
Wike dragged Atiku to court after losing to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential ticket to him. Tambuwal withdrew his bid few hours to the primary election, to support Atiku.
The Rivers State governor also lost the chance to be Atiku’s running mate following the choice of Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa.
Ever since, Wike has been agrieved, and has refused to support Atiku.
Wike has now filed a lawsuit alongside another PDP member, Michael Ekamon, according to records at the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/782/2022, Wike and Ekamon are listed as the plaintiffs, icirnigeria reports.
The PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), governor of Sokoto State Aminu Tambuwal and Atiku are listed as the 1st to 4th respondents, respectively.
The parties were served on July 1, and a PDP official responded to the originating summons on August 5 in Abuja.
Praying the court to declare Wike the PDP presidential candidate, the plaintiffs asked the court to determine if Tambuwal lost his claim to votes when he stepped down for Atiku.
They also asked the court to determine whether Tambuwal “having stepped down during the primaries, ought to lose his votes”.
The plaintiffs 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.
In addition, they seek a declaration 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 as 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.
Wike and Ekamon asked the court to order INEC to reject or remove Atiku from “its list of candidates in the 2023 presidential election”.
They are also seeking an order commanding the PDP to recount the votes at the primary hat wss held on May 28 and 29.
Lastly, the applicants 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 primary with a corresponding order directing the 1st respondent (PDP) to forward his name as the candidate to contest the presidential election in 2023”.
In a supporting affidavit he deposed to, Ekamon attested that Wike won the presidential election and maintained that Tambuwal withdrew from the contest after voting had commenced and directed that his votes be assigned to Atiku.
In the PDP Presidential primary in May, Atiku came first with 371 votes while Wike came second with 237.
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