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General News of Friday, 18 November 2022

Source: www.premiumtimesng.com

Senatorial candidate accuses SDP of awarding her ticket to defeated governorship candidate

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A woman who won the senatorial primary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Ekiti North district has accused the national leadership of the party of illegally substituting her name with that of the defeated governorship candidate of the party in the state.

The candidate, Titilayo Owolabi-Akerele, was replaced with Akinloye Aiyegbusi on the final list of candidates published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

But a party official has said the substitution must have occured in error and advised her to go to court to obtain an order for her reinstatement.

Mrs Owolabi-Akerele is a former member of the Ekiti State House of Assembly. The beneficiary of the substitution was the governorship candidate of the party in Ekiti during the 2018 election.

“It sounded highly troubling and reckless for the national leadership of the SDP to go ahead and substitute my name on the INEC’s final list with that of Mr Akinloye Aiyegbusi when he didn’t participate in the primary,” she said on Thursday while addressing journalists in Ado- Ekiti.

“SDP as a national party must be circumspect of its action. It must be fully abreast of the changes in the Electoral Act as amended. Under the amended electoral law, no one can be a candidate of any party if he has not won any primary or participated in it.

“Is the SDP national leadership not aware of what is happening to former governor Godwin Akpabio of the APC in Akwa Ibom? The court recently annulled his mandate on the premise that he didn’t participate in the primary.

“Have they also forgotten how the Senate President, Senator Ibrahim Lawan, lost his senatorial bid in Yobe North on the platform of the APC due to the fact that he didn’t participate in the primary? What would have informed this illegal and destructive decision that can emasculate our party ahead of 2023?

“I have received a lot of open and covert threats over this issue, but I am not deterred. I will fight it out through every constitutional means. So, to my teeming party’s supporters, I want to let them know that I stand by my mandate. Nothing can quake my decision on this.

“As leaders in the struggle for the actualisation of a robust and full-fledged democracy in Nigeria, we owe it a duty to play by the rules and defend our nascent democracy, so that laws and civility can be our guiding principles, rather than jackboot and inordinate actions that can further destroy the already feeble system.”

Speaking on the development, the National Secretary of the party, Olu Agunloye, on Thursday admitted that Mrs Owolabi-Akerele won the primaries and ought to be listed as the candidate.

He, however, said he did not know how the name of Mr Aiyegbusi emerged as the candidate.

Mr Agunloye said the only way out is for the court to determine the case given that INEC has published the final list of candidates.

“I have no idea about what led to that. She was the favourite to win that ticket. Some reports had it that she won the ticket, but we don’t know how that change now happened,” Mr Agunloye said.

He added that the party leadership had asked her to seek redress in court, since that is the only way her name can be reinstated to the list of candidates for the 2023 senatorial elections.

Mr Agunloye also said the party was prepared to produce the necessary evidence in court to prove that she won the election and for the court to rule in her favour.

Substitution of candidates under Section 31 of the Electoral Act closed on 15 July for national elections and 12 August for state elections as stated in item 6 of the commission’s timetable and schedule of activities.

No withdrawal or substitution of candidates is allowed after that except in the event of death as provided in section 34(1) of the Electoral Act or pursuant to an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.