Court proceedings over the Peoples Democratic Party’s pre-election nomination dispute are still ongoing, the Interim National Working Committee of the party led by Tanimu Turaki, SAN, has told aggrieved aspirants who were denied access to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s candidate nomination portal.
The Turaki-led faction urged the aspirants to remain calm and avoid “jumping the gun,” insisting that the matter was already before the court and that victory would eventually be secured through the legal process.
The appeal came after some aspirants, under the platform of “Concerned PDP Aspirants,” threatened to petition the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over the sale of nomination and expression of interest forms to them by the Turaki-led interim NWC.
The aspirants alleged that they spent hundreds of millions of naira on forms, publicity and logistics, only to be denied INEC access codes needed to upload their nominations as candidates.
INEC had reportedly released the portal access codes to the PDP faction led by Abdulrahman Mohammed, meaning that candidates registered through that faction are, for now, the ones recognised by the electoral body.
Reacting to the development, the National Publicity Secretary of the Turaki-led PDP NWC, Ini Emeombong, said the aspirants should be patient because the issue remained a pre-election matter before the court.
“This matter is still in court. They should be calm,” Emeombong said.
“They should bear in mind the recent situation in Plateau State in a similar matter concerning our party. This matter is still in court. It is a pre-election matter.
“We are happy with the processes of the matter in court. Victory will be served at the end of the day. INEC is aware of the processes,” he added.
Emeombong also reminded the aspirants of the 2023 Plateau State experience, where the Court of Appeal sacked several PDP lawmakers after holding that votes secured by the party were wasted because of issues relating to the party’s structure.
He said INEC had not yet published the final list of candidates for the 2027 general election, adding that the Turaki-led faction remained confident that the law would eventually vindicate it.
“We are on the side of the law as victory will be ours at the end of the day. We shall see who shall laugh last in this matter.
“My final word of advice to them in this matter is that they should not jump the gun,” he said.
The post “PDP Nomination Dispute Still In Court, Don’t Jump The Gun” — Turaki-Led NWC Urges Aggrieved Aspirants To Remain Calm Over INEC Access Codes appeared first on TheNigeriaLawyer.
