The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has vowed to challenge the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to exclude the particulars of its candidate from the provisional list for the Ekiti State off-cycle governorship election.
INEC released the provisional list on Monday, but the PDP’s candidate was conspicuously absent. The commission has yet to provide an official explanation for the omission, a development the opposition party says is linked to its lingering leadership crisis at the national level.
Citing Section 29(3) of INEC’s guidelines for the nomination of candidates, the PDP argued that the process for uploading candidates’ particulars is unambiguous. The provision stipulates that access codes for electronic submission are issued exclusively to the national chairman and national secretary of political parties, as recognised in INEC’s records. Where conflicting requests arise, the guidelines state that the access code shall be issued to the national chairman.
The guidelines further outlaw manual submission of candidates’ names and particulars, reinforcing INEC’s reliance on electronic filing through its nomination portal.
According to the PDP, the immediate past national chairman, Umar Damagum, obtained the access code from INEC before the expiration of his tenure and subsequently handed it over to the leadership led by Tanimu Turaki.
In a strongly worded statement on Tuesday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, accused the electoral body of acting with bias and vowed that the PDP would exhaust all legal options to compel INEC to recognise its candidate.
Ememobong said INEC was duly notified of, and monitored, the PDP governorship primaries in Ekiti State, adding that the commission issued reports confirming that the exercise complied with all relevant laws and was democratically conducted.
He further alleged that although INEC initially released the nomination portal access codes to the party, the codes were later blocked “a few days before the submission date,” forcing the PDP to resort to manual submission of documents at INEC’s office, which he said was formally acknowledged.
“The safest and most lawful course of action would have been for INEC to include the name of Dr. Oluwole Oluyede, our duly nominated candidate, in the published list,” the statement said, referring to Oluwole Oluyede.
“There is no contrary submission disputing his nomination, and no court order restraining INEC from recognising him.”
The party stressed that INEC’s own monitoring report validated the primaries and nomination process, insisting that the exclusion lacked both legal and procedural justification.
Announcing its decision to seek judicial intervention, the PDP urged INEC to remain impartial and independent, warning that actions perceived as partisan could undermine public confidence in the electoral process.
