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By Emmanuel Oloniruha<\/p>\n
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Abuja<\/p>\n
The Tanimu Turaki-led Interim National Working Committee (INWC) of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it has submitted the names of its presidential candidate, Goodluck Jonathan to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of 2027 general elections.<\/p>\n
www.primerisenews.com<\/p>\n
The National Publicity Secretary of the faction, Mr Ini Ememobong, said at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday that in addition to Jonathan, its presidential candidate, the faction also submitted the names of other flag bearers to INEC.<\/p>\n
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Ememobong said the names were submitted manually following the inability of the faction to have access to INEC\u2019s digital portal.<\/p>\n
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He said the also submitted were that of governorship and National Assembly candidates, adding that the action was in full compliance with the extant provisions of electoral laws.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe are pleased to announce that we have successfully submitted manually, and in full compliance with Electoral Act 2026, the entirety of the list of candidates sponsored by the authentic PDP.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is notwithstanding INEC\u2019s refusal to provide us with the necessary access codes, which is an administrative convenience rather than a legal requirement.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis submission contains the names of our presidential candidate, former President Goodluck Jonathan, as well as all governorship and National Assembly candidates, receipt of which has been duly acknowledged by INEC.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAs part of the electoral timetable, INEC will soon publish the names of candidates sponsored by political parties,\u201d the faction said.<\/p>\n
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Ememobong urged the faction\u2019s loyalists not do despair should INEC fail to publish the names of its candidates.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe are exhausting every constitutional, legal, and democratic avenue to ensure that our party is not hijacked or annexed to the ruling party,\u201d Ememobong said.<\/p>\n
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He also criticised the electoral umpire, alleging institutional bias against the faction and lack of neutrality in handling issues concerning the opposition party.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIn every matter involving our party, including court proceedings before even the Ibadan convention, INEC officials withheld or failed to acknowledge material facts which they witnessed.<\/p>\n
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\u201cCongresses monitored by INEC, meetings attended by INEC, were facts that INEC officials suppressed on oath in court and refused to acknowledge.<\/p>\n
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\u201cEven in subsequent matters, INEC seems to know the internal affairs and the internal organisation of the PDP in favour of one side, more than even normal members of the party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Ememobong urged the commission to exercise restraint and wait for the final determination of pending legal disputes before publishing candidate lists.<\/p>\n
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He equally disclosed that the faction had exercised its constitutional right by filing an appeal at the Court of Appeal against the ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja.<\/p>\n
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Ememobong expressed dissatisfaction with the judgment delivered by Justice Salim Ibrahim, describing it as inconsistent with earlier decisions of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n
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He recalled that the party had approached the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking an order to compel INEC to recognise the interim NWC among others.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe case we went for was for the enforcement of the judgments of the court, not a re-litigation of the issues therefrom.<\/p>\n
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\u201cRather than determine the questions relating to the enforcement of those subsisting judgments, my Lord, in his wisdom, but in our interpretation, ventured into issues already settled by these superior courts.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt is for this reason that we have exercised our constitutional right of appeal, and I can tell you that we have appealed that judgment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Ememobong also expressed concerns about the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment of the Federal High Court which he said was released to the party after considerable delay.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe certified true copy did not fully reflect portions of the judgment that were delivered in open court.<\/p>\n
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\u201cTherefore, those who were in open court, who heard my Lord, and who have seen the CTC, are beginning to find a way of knowing the convergent and divergent points between what they heard and what they have read,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Ememobong said that while the faction was not reading any intentions nor making any interpretations, it was only stating the facts that some extractions had been done.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOur decision to seek judicial intervention at the Court of Appeal is rooted in the confidence that the Court of Appeal will provide the necessary clarification which will help reclaim the supremacy of the earlier decisions of the higher court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Ememobong reaffirmed the faction\u2019s commitment to preserving multi-party democracy in Nigeria and reclaiming the party through legal channels.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe remain hopeful. With God on our side\u2014not man on our side, not power on our side, not money on our side, but with God on our side, victory is certain.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe understood from the very beginning that this struggle would be a marathon and not a sprint, and therefore we came adequately prepared for a marathon and not a sprint.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe remain willing and prepared to endure to the very end to endure ridicule and harassment,\u201d Ememobong said.(NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2027: Turaki-led PDP faction submits Jonathan\u2019s name, others to INEC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG-20260731-WA0029.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":477,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}