Main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, on Tuesday, vowed to approach the courts to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission to include its candidate in the list of governorship contenders for the forthcoming Ekiti State election.
PDP, led by its acting National Chairman, Tanimu Turaki (SAN), accused INEC of bias, insisting that the electoral umpire monitored its governorship primary and confirmed that the process complied with all extant electoral laws.
PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong, said in a statement that there was no basis for the exclusion of the party’s candidate, Dr Oluwole Oluyede, from the list of candidates released by INEC.
He said there was no contrary submission before INEC challenging the validity of Oluyede’s nomination, nor was there any court order restraining INEC from recognising him as the party’s candidate.
PDP accused INEC of acting in bad faith, arguing that the commission was duly notified of the governorship primary, attended and monitored the exercise, and subsequently issued reports confirming that it was democratically conducted in line with the law.
Following the primary, the PDP said INEC released the relevant nomination portal codes to the party, through which official nomination forms were accessed.
But it alleged that the commission later blocked the codes a few days to the submission deadline, forcing the party to resort to manual submission of documents at INEC’s office, an action it said was duly acknowledged by the commission.
PDP argued that, given the far-reaching consequences of excluding a validly nominated candidate from an election, INEC ought to have exercised caution and responsibility by including Oluyede’s name in the published list.
“Having failed to act appropriately, our party has immediately taken steps to approach the courts to compel INEC to do what it ought to have done in the first place,” the PDP statement said.
