Chukwunweike (Chike) Maduekwe, a senatorial candidate in the shady primaries conducted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State, has sued both the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In a lawsuit filed at the Federal High Court in Awka, Mr. Maduekwe is asking the court to declare that the PDP failed to conduct any primaries to elect candidates for the 2015 National Assembly election in the state. Among other declarations, the plaintiff, who is a leading legal practitioner, wants the court to rule that the PDP cannot use any gimmicks to circumvent its obligation to hold proper primaries that are consistent with the party’s electoral guidelines and the Electoral Act of 2010 (as amended): that the party, having failed to conduct primaries, may not field candidates for the National Assembly elections scheduled for February 14, 2015; that the PDP be compelled to refund the sum of N4.5 million it had collected from him as a nomination fee for the party’s senatorial ticket; and that INEC be restrained from accepting any purported list of candidates submitted by the PDP for National Assembly elections.
In addition, Mr. Maduekwe, who hails from Umudioka in Dunukofia local government area, is seeking exemplary damages of N250 million from the PDP for the party’s violation of its electoral guidelines that caused the plaintiff pain, hardship, and psychological trauma.
The lawsuit alleges that the party failed to hold delegates’ election on November 1, 2014 as required by its electoral guidelines. According to the lawsuit, “no primary election took place in Anambra State on 7th December, 2014 and or thereafter to elect National Assembly candidates for the 1st Defendant in Anambra State for the 2015 National Assembly.”
SaharaReporters had extensively reported that the PDP’s so-called primaries for the three senatorial tickets in Anambra State turned into a fiasco as the tickets were handed to incumbent Senator Andy Uba, corrupt former Aviation Minister Stella Oduah, and Uche Ekwunife, a controversial member of the House of Representatives who recently defected from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to the PDP.
The party’s candidates, backed by the Presidency and First Lady Patience Jonathan, were declared winners of “primaries” that never held.
According to a major supporter of another senatorial aspirant, “Our great party perpetrated a fraud when it claimed to have conducted primaries in Anambra. The truth of the matter is that the party did not notify the candidates of the venue for the primaries and did not even release the names of delegates.”
Speaking to SaharaReporters from Onitsha, the source said he was fully in support of Mr. Maduekwe’s lawsuit. He added: “The court should uphold Chief Maduekwe’s lawsuit in order to teach the PDP the lesson that we should no longer do wuruwuru instead of real primaries.”