The People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) asked the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) yesterday to reject the submission of Kolawole
Olagunju and Bayo Idowu’s names — or any substitutes for them — as
Action Congress (ACN) candidates for the Central Senatorial district
and Ekiti Central Federal Constituency I respectively of Ekiti State.
The party claimed, in a petition to the electoral commission, that the
two men never contested for primary elections, directly or indirectly.
“Since the
purported candidates, Kolawole Olagunju and Bayo Idowu, did not meet
the requirements of law, they cannot be substituted under whatever
guise; otherwise INEC will be committing illegalities,” the petition
read.
The party claimed that the duo never contested for the seats.
“To also
demonstrate the ACN’s penchant for fraud, misinformation and contempt
for INEC and the laws establishing it, one of the party’s senatorial
aspirants, Babafemi Ojudu, posted on the Internet on Tuesday, February
8, 2011 at exactly 06:40:10 am that: ‘As a result of this, the party
decided to suspend the submission of my form to INEC pending the
decision of the ex-governor’s forum. Since INEC has a deadline for the
submission of nomination form, a dummy candidate was used which could
be substituted after its decision on the appeal.”
“We shall not
hesitate to take legal actions against the persons involved and the
commission in line with Section 31 (5 6) and Section 1(b) of the
Electoral Act 2010,” the PDP warned.
However, one of the contestants and Lagos State Commissioner for
Information and Strategy Opeyemi Bamidele had resigned. Mr. Bamidele
contested for the Ekiti Central senatorial district seat with Mr.
Ojudu, before the party went ahead to submit other names. ACN chairman
in the State, Jide Awe, did not respond to phone calls when Next tried
to reach him for comments.
