From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Imo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is walking on a tight rope as a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) sitting in Kubwa, Abuja, has reaffirmed its order barring the party from conducting fresh ad hoc delegates or using any ad-hoc list.
Meanwhile, attempts by the National Secretary of the Party, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu to vacate the interim order failed as the court threatened to nullify any primary election conducted in violation of its order. On its own part, INEC, which is also a party to the suit, has stated that it would abide by the court order and will not accord any recognition to any ad-hoc delegates list or the result of any primary election in the state conducted with any purported ad-hoc delegates list.
The commission has also, in a letter to the national chairman of the PDP, stated that it would only recognise primary elections results conducted with only statutory delegates.
However, opposition coalition spokesperson, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere has hailed the court decision and urged the party leadership to save Imo PDP from extinction by taking a categorical stand and obey the court as well as the directives of INEC and call the national secretary to order and drop all attempts to use the unlawful ad hoc delegates list to conduct primaries as doing otherwise may ultimately lead to the party being excluded from the ballot in the state.
The FCT High Court had on May 6, 2022 restrained both the PDP and INEC from recognising the outcome of the three-man ad-hoc delegates election of the party held on April 30, 2022 or any other date, an order the PDP failed to vacate in its application on May 17, leaving the party with no other options but to conduct all its primaries in the state with the statutory delegates.
Justice Bello Kawu granted the preservative order after listening to a motion exparte filed by Chidinma Nancy Uzomba, an aspirant cleared by PDP to contest the election for Ideato Federal Constituency.