Tobias Sylvester
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has denied filing a suit seeking the disqualification of a former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Wike Disown Suit Against Atiku
The media was on Friday morning awash with reports that Wike had dragged Atiku, Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to court over the conduct of the PDP presidential primary election which took place in May.
According to the purported suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/782/2022, one Newgent Ekamon and other plaintiffs asked a federal high court in Abuja to order INEC to remove Atiku from “its list of candidates in the 2023 presidential election”.
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”.
KanyiDaily recalls that Wike lost the PDP presidential ticket to Atiku after Tambuwal stepped down for the former vice-president and asked his supporters to vote for him.
Reacting to the alledged suit during an interview with THISDAY on Friday, Wike denied knowing anything whatsoever about the purported suit or even knowing the lawyers who filed the suit in the first instance.
“I don’t know anything about the so-called suit. I did not ask anyone to file any suit for me,” the governor was quoted as saying.
“I don’t know the lawyers. Am I a kid to be filing a suit at this time? I had 14 days after the primary within which to have filed any suit. I didn’t do that then, is it two months after primary I will file a suit?
“Just yesterday they came up with the claim that I ordered my chief security officer to pull down the PDP flag in government house. This is all false, it’s all propaganda. Some people are trying to use me to win the election. Please disregard all these lies.”
KanyiDaily recalls that PDP had also denied reports that Governor Nyesom Wike had banned its members from campaigning for Atiku Abubakar in Rivers state.
