The Tanimu Turaki led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party has lost its bid to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission to recognise and publish its leadership on the commission’s portal, after a Federal High Court dismissed the suit for lacking merit, a setback the faction is calling a victory postponed rather than a defeat.
Justice Salim Ibrahim, ruling on a preliminary objection filed by INEC, held that the suit, brought by the PDP’s Board of Trustees under Chairman Adolphus Wabara, was incompetent, finding that the plaintiffs lacked the legal standing to bring the case and striking it out for want of jurisdiction. According to the ruling, the plaintiffs failed to establish that INEC had ever recognised the interim National Working Committee the Board of Trustees had installed, or that they held the authority to sue on the PDP’s behalf in the first place. The case traces back to the nullification of the PDP’s national convention that had produced the Turaki led national executive, after which the Wabara led Board of Trustees, seeking to avoid a leadership vacuum, installed an interim NWC under Turaki and approached INEC to have its names uploaded as the party’s recognised leadership ahead of 2027. INEC, however, had already recognised and uploaded the leadership under Abdulrahman Mohammed, said to be loyal to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, prompting the Wabara camp’s now dismissed suit.
Interim NWC National Publicity Secretary Ini Ememobong said the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, presided over by Justice Salim Olasupo Ibrahim, upheld the defendants’ preliminary objection and struck out the case, ruling that the subject matter, the party’s leadership, constitutes an internal affair over which the court’s jurisdiction is ousted. While we respect the judgement of the trial court, we respectfully consider that it is against the extant judgements of the Appeal and apex courts, leaving the plaintiffs with no option but to appeal the judgement and the rulings therein, Ememobong said, disclosing that lawyers have already been briefed to pursue an immediate appeal. We are hopeful that as we climb the ladder of the law upwards, the victory of truth over lies, principles over compromise and the survival of true opposition and multi party democracy will be assured, the statement said, the politics of power, money and greed may last for a while, but we are certain that though our victory may be postponed, as the struggle continues, we will eventually attain it, aluta continua, victoria ascerta.
