A former governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, Morgan Tom-West, has sued the party’s candidate, Siminialayi Fubara, and the party before a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
In the suit before the court, Tom-West is seeking an order to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognizing Fubara as the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state.
This was contained in a sixty-one-paragraph affidavit presented by counsel for the plaintiff, Ibrahim Idaiye.
He is also asking the court to restrain the PDP from presenting and submitting Fubara’s name as the candidate of the party to INEC.
According to the aggrieved politician, the process through which Fubara emerged was faulty, noting that the governorship candidate did not win the majority vote of delegates during the primary that was conducted on May 25, 2022.
The suit claimed that Fubara’s name was announced as the winner of the party’s primary, contrary to the terms and guidelines of the Electoral Act 2022.
Recall that the former Accountant-General of the state, Siminialayi Fubara had emerged as Rivers PDP’s candidate after he won with a total of seven hundred and twenty-one votes (721) at the party’s gubernatorial primaries held at the Dr. Obi Wali International Conference Centre in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
The Opobo-born had topped 19 out of the 23 Local Government Areas in the state to win over 14 other aspirants including the former secretary of the state government, Tammy Danagogo; a special assistant to Governor Nyesom Wike on special projects, Dax-Kelly George, and former Commissioner for Finance, Isaac Kamalu.
He has also received a certificate of return from the Party’s secretariat in Abuja ahead of the 2023 general elections.
