A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday ordered the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to maintain status quo on the just concluded gubernatorial primary election held in Lagos recently, Tribune reports.
The judgement automatically means, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, who was declared the winner of the primary election, cannot parade himself as the candidate of the PDP for now.
According to PM news, the court has fixed December 23 for the INEC and the PDP to appear before it and warned Mr. Agbaje not to parade himself as the party’s candidate until the suit before it was heard.
An aggrieved governorship aspirant in the primaries, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro had pleaded with the court to compel the PDP to dismiss the results of the primaries, due to the allegations that the total number of votes declared was more that the delegates at the primaries.
Obanikoro is also questioning the eligibility of Agbaje to contest the primaries, asking the court not to recognise him as the PDP candidate on moral grounds, because he joined the party six months before the election and he has not been granted waiver by the national leadership of the party.
The former minister of defence also alleged that a chieftain of the party in Lagos, Chief Olabode George came with thugs to chase away his loyalists from the venue of the primaries.
Obanikoro, therefore, asked the court to cancel the exercise and fix a date for another primary election in the state.
The former Nigeria Ambassador to Ghana informed his followers on twitter last week that he is heading to the court to seek redress because the 48 hours timeline stipulated by the PDP Electoral Guideline for aggrieved party members has elapsed without any response from the PDP electoral appeal committee.
It will be recalled that the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate in the gubernatorial election in the state, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has recently described the PDP primary election as a sham.
