Court orders Lagos PDP, INEC to maintain status quo

Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, ordered the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to maintain the status quo on the contentious gubernatorial primaries held in Lagos over a week ago, in which Mr Jimi Agabaje emerged the party’s candidate for the 2015 governorship poll. The court has, however, fixed December 23 for the INEC and PDP to appear before it and, as such, forbade Agbaje, the acclaimed winner, to stop parading himself as the party’s candidate until the suit before it was heard. Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, a governorship aspirant on Lagos PDP platform, had pleaded with the court to compel the party not to accept the result of the primaries held on December 8, due to the alleged over-voting at the exercise. A total of 806 accredited voters were announced at the commencement of voting, but 866 delegates later voted. The former minister also asked the court not to recognise Agbaje because, according to him, he joined the party barely six months ago and, as such, was morally unfit to contest for governorship, since the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party had not given him a waiver. Other issue in contention before the court was that the leader of the party in Lagos, Chief Olabode George, allegedly came with thugs to scare accredited voters loyal to Obanikoro away from the venue. Obanikoro, in his prayer, is seeking for outright cancellation of the exercise and a rerun at a date to be fixed.