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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, attempted to throw the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) off balance, when it filed a suit before a Federal High Court in Abuja seeking the sack of all National Working Committee (NWC) members of APC.
The Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC took over the affairs of APC after the party’s national convention in March this year.
In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1864/2022, and filed through Ayo Kamaldeen Ajibade, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), PDP is contesting the legality of the process that produced the party’s national officers.
The fresh suit is predicated on a recent judgment of a Federal High Court, which nullified the nomination of Osun State governor, Gboyega Oyetola and his deputy, Benedict Alabi, as APC candidates in the July governorship election.
The presiding judge, Emeka Nwite, who delivered the ruling on September 30, in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/468/2022 held that the nomination of Oyetola and his deputy was unlawful.
The court based its judgment on the grounds that Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni, who submitted their names to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), violated the provisions of Section 183 of the Constitution and Section 82(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Buni was then the acting chairman of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC).
Consequently, the PDP is praying the court to void the APC NWC as well as all candidates produced by the party for the 2023 general elections on the claim that they were produced in breach of the 1999 Constitution, the party’s Constitution and Electoral Act 2022.
The case file has been assigned to Inyang Ekwo, a federal high court judge. Ekwo has fixed November 22 for mention of the suit with an order that all the 53 persons listed by PDP as defendants be served with hearing notices in their respective locations.
APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; the party’s vice-presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima, as well as governorship candidates, their running mates, Senatorial and House of Representatives candidates were listed as defendants in the suit.
