The Providence People’s Congress, PPC, has threatened to sue the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for disqualifying and expunging the name of Stephen Obasola, its governorship candidate, from the list of candidates for the July 14, 2018, Ekiti State election.
Obasola emerged through a primary supervised by INEC at the party’s secretariat located at Okesa area in Ado Ekiti.
But the commission said the PPC flag bearer was “technically disqualified” from the race.
Benson Adetona, the PPC national chairman, while addressing journalists on Monday, June 18, 2018, said the party on May 14, 2018, submitted forms CF01 and CF02 to INEC in Abuja in compliance with the commission’s guidelines.
He wondered why the party would have to be punished unjustifiably, even when it submitted the candidate’s name a day earlier than May 15, 2018, stipulated by INEC.
Adetona accused a certain officer in the office of the INEC National Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, of playing pranks on the party, by rejecting the forms earlier listed, on the excuse that they were not attached with forms EC4 and EC5
He said a petition dated May 18, 2018, was forwarded to Mr. Yakubu when it appeared that the commission was not willing to address the problem, but no response has been received from the commission on the petition.
“The fact that the name of our candidate was listed by INEC as one of the 40 contenders that were acknowledged from Ekiti office of INEC showed that our primary was free, fair and credible because our party operates like a family. There is no division,” Mr. Adetona.
“When we took forms CF01 and CF02 to the INEC Electoral Party Monitoring Department in Abuja, the officer detailed for the collection said they have to be attached with forms EC 4 and EC 5.
“But we told him the submission lapsed on May 15, 2018. He convinced us that we should not mind , that we can come on May 17 or 18 because of our peculiar situation.
“We got there on May 17, 2018, only for the same staff to reject our form. We were referred to heads of Legal Department and Electoral Party Monitoring, but nothing was done.
“We viewed this action as a serious infringement on our fundamental rights to have a candidate in Ekiti election. And this was a setback to our electoral system. Election can only be deemed to be free and fair when INEC is fair to all parties.
