Court 'Freezes' Turaki Interim NWC, Cedes PDP To Wike Group
A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Friday, may have frozen the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Interim National Working Committee, NWC<, led by Kabiru Turaki, as the court struck out a suit seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to recognise and publish names of the Turaki Interim National Working Committee, INWC, of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Justice Salim Ibrahim held that the plaintiffs, led by PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Sen. Adolphus Wabara, lacked the legal standing to institute the suit and consequently struck it out for want of jurisdiction.
The court upheld the preliminary objection filed by INEC and sustained similar objections raised by parties seeking to be joined in the suit, ruling that the plaintiffs failed to establish that INEC had recognized the purported interim NWC or that they had the authority to sue on behalf of the PDP.
Meanwhile, certain stakeholders were of the view that the court, without overt pronouncement, may have ceded the PDP to the faction led by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, in the circumstance of the judgement.