Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has today distant himself from the rumor that he approached a court with a suit seeking to disqualify Atiku Abubakar, the flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. It was alleged that Wike supporters have approached court challenging, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC over the conduct of the primary election that produced the presidential flag bearer of the party held in Abuja in May 2022.
In a suit marked, FHC/ABJ/CS/782/2022, 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 plaintiff demands that the first respondent, PDP should drop Atiku Abubakar as its flag bearer of the party and declare, the second respondent, Nyesom Wike as the flag bearer of the PDP presidential primaries held in May 2022, and subsequently direct INEC to recognize Wike as the authentic presidential candidate of the party.
Wike was floored by Atiku Abubakar to emerge second during the PDP presidential primaries that took place in Abuja on May 28, 2022.
As Atiku secured 371 votes to emerge, the winner, Wike scored 237 votes to clinch the second position.
The outcome of the primary election pitched PDP members against each other with Wike leading one faction while Atiku with another.
Speaking to newsmen today, Wike disclosed that he did not authorize anyone to approach the court on his behalf.
According to him, “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?
Wike slammed the rumor peddlers saying, “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.”
