The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has made arrangement to take the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to court over the declaration of the declaration of the Osun State governorship election as inconclusive.
The PDP confirmed this in a statement by Kola Ologbondiyan, its National Publicity Secretary, on Monday in Abuja.
According to the opposition party, the declaration of the election as inconclusive was invalid as the September 22 election had ended with results announced at all the polling centres and at the collation centre.
The PDP contended that with the results announced it was expected of INEC to declare a winner, adding that the electoral body’s action was therefore “an annulment, totally duplicitous, constitutionally illegal, ultra-vires and as such null and void”
The statement read, “Our electoral law is clear that once an election result is declared, INEC is bound to return a winner.
“Section 69 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) states that inter-alia ‘in an election to the office of the President or governor whether or not contested and in any contested election to any other elective office, the result shall be ascertained by counting the votes cast for each candidate’.
“And subject to the provisions of sections 133, 134 and 179 of the constitution, the candidate that receives the highest number of votes shall be declared elected by the appropriate Returning Officer.
“Concurrently, Section 179 (2), (a) (b) of the constitution directly prescribes that ‘a candidate for an election to the office of Governor of a State shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being two or more candidates – (a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election’;
“And ‘(b) he has not less than one-quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the local government areas in the State.’”
The PDP accused INEC of contravening the law by colluding with the All Progressives Congress, APC, to alter the election results.
The party also demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of Joseph Fuwape, the election returning officer for declaring the election inconclusive.
“The PDP therefore demands the immediate arrest and prosecution of the Osun State Governorship Election Returning Officer, Prof. Joseph Fuwape, for succumbing to the pressure of the APC and declaring a decided election as inconclusive”.
It also called on Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC Chairman, to “immediately summon the courage to do the needful” by declaring Senator Ademola Adeleke, the PDP candidate, the winner of the election.
, has made arrangement to take the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to court over the declaration of the declaration of the Osun State governorship election as inconclusive. The PDP confirmed this in a statement by Kola Ologbondiyan,){kind=link}