By Idriss LAWAL
A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise and publish the names of the Kabiru Turaki-led interim National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party.
In a judgment on Friday evening, Justice Salim Ibrahim held that the plaintiffs – members of the Adolphus Wabara Board of Trustees (BOT) – lacked the locus standi (the legal right) to file the suit, a development the judge said robbed the court of the necessary jurisdiction to hear and determine it.
Justice Ibrahim upheld the preliminary objections filed by INEC and by members of the party’s interim leadership sympathetic to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ezenwo Nyesom-Wike.
ALSO READ: Mimiko Resigns from PDP, Sparks Fresh Defection Speculation to APC
The judge held that the plaintiffs failed to establish that INEC had recognised the purported interim NWC or that they had the authority to sue on behalf of the PDP.
Justice Ibrahim found that Wabara-led BoT members had no legal basis to have filed the suit on behalf of the PDP and proceeded to strike out the political party’s name as the eighth plaintiff because the plaintiffs lacked the authority to have included PDP’s name as a plaintiff in the case.
The court granted the joinder application by the Wike-backed PDP executives, led by its National Chairman, Mohammed Abdulrahman; National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu; and National Legal Adviser, Kamardeen Ajibade, because they are necessary parties.
