…raises questions about his eligibility as party’s governorship candidate
In less than 24 hours, another civil society group has alleged that the name of the Ogun State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Hon Ladi Adebutu, is not included in the membership register submitted by the party to the Independent Electoral Commission.
The group, Elections Integrity Watch, claimed that a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the PDP membership register it obtained from INEC does not list Adebutu as one of its members in Ogun State.
EIW, therefore, stated that the non-inclusion of Adebutu’s name as a member of the PDP in the register the party submitted to INEC raised questions about the record on which the governorship flagbearer is being presented and whether any subsequent document containing his name was submitted to and accepted by INEC.
Recall that on Tuesday, a civil society group, Ogun Democratic Accountability Forum (ODAF), first raised the alarm about Adebutu’s missing name on the PDP register submitted to INEC.
Just like EIW, the first group, ODAF, similarly claimed to have confirmed this development through a Certified True Copy of the PDP register it obtained from INEC this week; for which it paid the prescribed fee and was issued a receipt.
Based on this alleged discovery, ODAF questioned Adebutu’s eligibility for the PDP governorship ticket, noting that his name was missing from the register submitted to INEC within the statutory period prescribed for political parties ahead of their primaries.
Similarly, the Chairman of Elections Integrity Watch, Comrade Akinlolu Anifowose, said the issue assumed particular significance in light of the Supreme Court’s recent judgement on statutory provisions governing party membership registers and their use in internal party elections.
Anifowose said his group obtained from the electoral umpire an INEC-certified copy of the PDP register in Adebutu was not listed among the party’s members, urging the Commission to clarify whether the document represents the register submitted by the PDP within the period prescribed by law.
The group therefore queried Adebutu’s current status in Ogun PDP, asking, “The issue before INEC is straightforward: if the Certified True Copy issued by the Commission does not contain Hon. Ladi Adebutu’s name, on what record is he now being presented as the PDP governorship candidate?”
Anifowose said the group was not asking INEC to take sides in an intra-party political dispute, but to account for the documentary basis of the nomination.
“If another document containing Adebutu’s name exists, INEC should clarify when it was submitted, by whom, under what legal authority it was accepted and whether it complied with the applicable statutory requirements,” he said.
EIW’s position is coming against the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s restoration of Sections 77(5), 77(6) and 77(7) of the Electoral Act 2026, provisions relating to party membership registers and their use in internal electoral processes.
The group said apex court’s decision reinforces the importance of establishing the identity, provenance and submission date of the record relied upon for the PDP’s Ogun governorship process.
Anifowose, however, stressed that the group’s position should not be misconstrued as accusing INEC of altering its records.
“We are not alleging that INEC altered any record. We are asking the Commission to establish the facts. Where there is a material difference between an official certified document and another record subsequently relied upon, there should be a clear documentary and legal basis for that difference,” he said.
Anifowose also urged the preservation of relevant physical and electronic records, including submitted membership documents, nomination records, submission timestamps and available audit trails, to enable the chronology to be independently established.
According to EIW, its intervention is aimed at ensuring that the status of the Ogun PDP nomination is determined on the basis of verifiable records and the applicable law, rather than conflicting claims.
