Former vice-presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Datti Baba-Ahmed, has said that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar would have won the 2027 presidency if he had supported Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential poll.
In the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Sen. Adolphus Wabara-led Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) has instituted a suit against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), demanding recognition of its interim National Working Committee (NWC).
A fresh political controversy erupted within the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) following allegations that Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso is attempting to monopolise party structures and candidate selection processes in Kano State, triggering tension among senior party officials.
Meanwhile, the former Chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and NDC chieftain, Sam Amadi, said the recent primary election conducted by the Imo State chapter of the party was marred by ticket racketeering and short-changing of aspirants.
Baba-Ahmed, during an interview on ‘Inside Sources’ on Channels Television, said if Atiku had been patient and acted like President Bola Tinubu, who offered others the political platform to contest presidential elections, he (Baba-Ahmed) would have agreed to step down in 2027 and urged Obi to do the same.
“If in 2023 elections, he took everyone by surprise, did the kind of things Tinubu would typically do, called Obi and I and said, ‘Hey, guys, you are my juniors, I’ll support you guys. No 2027 for you,’ Wallahi, I would have agreed, and I would have told Obi to agree, and Atiku would have been the 2027 president of Nigeria.
“But once they enter that trance, they tend to see themselves as President,” he said.
THE BoT and the PDP, in a fresh suit, sought an order compelling INEC to, forthwith, update its records and publish on its official website the NWC of the party as forwarded to it by the plaintiffs and its National Executive Committee, NEC.
They said the names of members of the Tanimu Turaki-led NWC were forwarded to the electoral umpire via their letters dated May 4, 2026.
The originating summons, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1159/2026, was filed on June 4 by a team of lawyers led by Chief Chris Uche (SAN).
Listed as plaintiffs were former Senate President Wabara; BoT Secretary, former Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger; ex-Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana and PDP chieftain, Olabode George.
Others include former Minister of Women Affairs, Maryam Ciroma; ex-Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Zainab Maina; member of BoT and NEC, Esther Uduehi and PDP as the 5th to 8th plaintiffs respectively.
The plaintiffs sued INEC as the sole defendant in the suit.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had, on June 3, set aside key aspects of an Ibadan Federal High Court judgment that recognised a factional caretaker committee in the PDP. It held that the trial court granted reliefs that were never sought by any of the parties to the suit.
Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, in a unanimous judgment, faulted Justice Uche Agomoh of the Federal High Court, Ibadan, for going beyond the issues placed before the court in a dispute arising from the PDP leadership crisis.
Justice Agomoh had, in a judgment delivered on January 30, recognised the caretaker committee led by Abdurahman Mohammed and Samuel Anyanwu of Nyesom Wike’s camp, as the legitimate leadership faction of the party.
However, the Court of Appeal held that none of the parties before the lower court had sought such a declaration.
THE allegations against Kwankwaso were made in a statement issued by Mohammed Serina, the NDC North-West Vice Chairman, and Hussaini Mariga, the Kano State Chairman, who warned that the internal crisis could threaten the unity and credibility of the party ahead of future elections.
According to Serina, the dispute dates to the integration of Kwankwaso into the party’s structure, which was initially welcomed under the directive of the National Leader, Senator Henry Seriake Dickson, who had reportedly instructed party stakeholders to accommodate Kwankwaso and work collaboratively to strengthen the party.
IN Imo, Amadi accused some party officials of collecting money from aspirants in exchange for tickets.
He raised the alarm while commenting on the outcome of the exercise, where he alleged that several aspirants who participated in the primaries had lodged complaints accusing some party officials of demanding and receiving payments without delivering tickets to them.
He hinted that many aspirants had been meeting him and complaining that some officials collected money from them.
Amadi called on the affected aspirants, who allegedly made payments outside officially declared party fees, to reach out to him, pledging to assist in recovering their funds.
