Ondo Election: INEC May Disqualify AD's Gubernatorial Candidate After Eyitayo Jegede

An influential APC chieftain is currently advocating for the disqualification of AD's gubernatorial candidate, Oke for failing to participate in the party's primary election as the Electoral Act demands.

Olusola Oke

 

A Human Rights activist and former governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo State, Dr. Tunji Abayomi, yesterday, said that the governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, Chief Olusola Oke was not qualified to contest the November 26, governorship election, according to the Vanguard.

 

Abayomi has therefore called on INEC to disqualify Oke and his running mate, Mr. Gani Dauda for allegedly not being eligible to contest the poll.

 

Speaking in Akure, Abayomi alleged that both Oke and his deputy did not participate in the primary of the AD, which according to him, was against provisions of the Electoral Act.

He further alleged that the duo got the nomination of the AD through a back door arrangement. “Nobody can contest an election in the country unless he or she is a member a political party. In the case of Oke and his deputy, they neither participated in nor were they elected in a primary.

"Oke can only be a candidate of the APC where he contested but he didn’t win the primary . The Electoral Act says he must be elected by the members of AD and they must vote for him in a primary.

"A party is not allowed to nominate a candidate without the candidate participating in the primary of the party. He said that INEC did not attend or supervise the primary that produced Oke as the candidate of the AD," he concluded.

 

In the same vein, the National Legal Adviser of Alliance for Democracy, Kehinde Aworele, says he will go to court to challenge the eligibility of Oke as the party candidate in the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo.

Aworele said on Tuesday that Oke did not meet the party’s requirements to contest on its platform. It would be recalled that INEC earlier dropped the name of the People's Democratic Party's factional candidate - Eyitayo Jegede who has since been replaced by Jimoh Ibrahim of the Ali Modu Sheriff faction.