PDP’s candidate in the election, Ademola Adeleke
Osun re-run: PDP going to court, candidate will participate in election, says PDP Scribe
While the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) (as a political party) will contest the outcome of Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Osun State, PDP’s candidate in the election, Ademola Adeleke will contest in the re-scheduled election which will take place on Thursday.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, confirmed to Discover Africa News on Tuesday that “PDP is going to court but the candidate will participate in the election. This is the position of the PDP National leadership”.
This clears some speculations about the PDP position about the Thursday election where its candidate won the majority votes.
The PDP declared it would seek legal redress following Sunday’s declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that the Osun State governorship election was inconclusive.
The party has maintained that its candidate, Ademola Adeleke, defeated his All Progressives Congress (APC) rival, Gboyega Oyetola.
“Our electoral law is clear that once an election result is declared, INEC is bound to return a winner. INEC, in trying to play the card of the defeated APC, contravened the law by refusing to announce a return, even when the declared results have thrown up a winner,” the party said in a statement released by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
The PDP added: “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.”
According to the PDP, “INEC’s action in declaring a concluded election as inconclusive is therefore an annulment, totally duplicitous, constitutionally illegal, ultra-vires and as such null and void.”
The party consequently demanded the arrest and prosecution of the election’s Returning Officer, Prof. Joseph Fuwape, for allegedly succumbing to the pressure of the APC and declaring the poll inconclusive.
“We demand that INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu immediately summon the courage to do the needful by declaring our candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, as winner,” the party added.
The PDP’s decision seemed to align with the opinion of some lawyers who argued that INEC should have announced Adeleke as winner.