Court Strikes Out Suit Seeking INEC Recognition of Turaki-Led PDP Leadership

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has struck out a suit seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise and publish the Kabiru Turaki-led Interim National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Delivering judgment on Friday, Justice Salim Ibrahim ruled that the plaintiffs lacked the legal standing (locus standi) to institute the action, declaring the suit incompetent and outside the jurisdiction of the court.

The suit was filed by the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Adolphus Wabara, alongside the Board’s Secretary, Muazu Babangida Aliyu, Prof. Jerry Gana, Chief Olabode George, Hajiya Maryam Ciroma, Hajiya Zainab Maina, Dame Esther Uduehi, and the PDP.

The plaintiffs had asked the court to order INEC to recognise the Kabiru Turaki-led Interim NWC, publish the names of its members on the commission’s website, and accept all official communications issued by the body. They argued that previous judgments of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court placed a constitutional obligation on INEC to recognise the interim leadership.

However, Justice Ibrahim held that the plaintiffs failed to establish that INEC was under any existing legal obligation to recognise the Turaki-led committee.

According to the judge, the plaintiffs did not provide sufficient evidence to show that INEC had ever recognised the purported Interim NWC or that any subsisting court order directed the electoral body to do so.

He further ruled that the Supreme Court judgment relied upon by the plaintiffs did not compel INEC to recognise the Turaki-led leadership, adding that the plaintiffs also failed to prove that the committee constituted the lawful leadership of the PDP.

The court upheld preliminary objections filed by INEC and members of the Wike-backed PDP leadership, who had earlier been joined as defendants in the suit. Those joined included Alhaji Abdulrahman Mohammed, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, and the party’s National Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade.

Justice Ibrahim also granted separate applications by Austin Nwachukwu, Abraham Amah Nnanna, and George Turnah to be joined as parties, holding that they had interests likely to be affected by the outcome of the case.

The court subsequently struck out the PDP as the eighth plaintiff and upheld objections raised by the newly joined defendants, ruling that the issues before it had already been determined in an earlier case.

Having resolved all preliminary issues against the plaintiffs, Justice Ibrahim held that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the substantive suit and struck it out in its entirety.

The judge awarded N10 million in costs against the plaintiffs in favour of the defendants and directed the counsel who filed the suit to personally ensure payment of the costs. He said the order was intended to discourage frivolous political litigation, stressing that the matter was an internal affair of the political party.

The ruling is a major setback for the Wabara-led Board of Trustees in its attempt to secure judicial recognition for the Kabiru Turaki-led Interim National Working Committee amid the lingering leadership crisis within the PDP.