INEC To Go On With Ondo Governorship Election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says there is no going back on the date for the Ondo state governorship election that has been scheduled for November 26, 2016.

The INEC’s Director for Elections Monitoring, Mr Bala Shittu, gave the assurance at a conference with elections observer groups in Abuja.

According to him, INEC is ready for the conduct of the elections as scheduled even though it has one final stakeholders meeting in Akure, the Ondo state capital on Tuesday, Nov 22.

He also stated that the electoral body has done risk assessment for the state and has related its finding to security agents for proper security during the polls.

Indefinite Adjournment

The possibility of the election holding became bleak on Friday after the Court of Appeal adjourned judgment in the PDP governorship candidacy tussle indefinitely.

The Court had fixed Friday, November 18, 2016 to deliver judgment in respect of an appeal filed by Eyitayo Jegede against the decision of Justice Okon Abang of the  Federal High Court Abuja.

In the motion, factional chairman of the party in Ondo state, Prince Biyi Boroye, accused the three-man panel of bias and prayed the Supreme Court to restrain the judges from further proceedings in the appeals.

The motion served in the panel about 7:30PM on Thursday night alleged that the three judges had betrayed their oath of office with the way the appeals were been handled and that they have refused to be bound by their own earlier orders.

PDP Crisis

INEC has been at the centre of the PDP crisis since its decision to recognise a factional candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election, Mr Jimoh Ibrahim.

The agency based its decision on the ruling of a Federal High Court in Abuja which recognised the Ali Modu-Sheriff faction of the party as the authentic one.

Justice Abang ordered INEC to recognise Mr Ibrahim as the PDP flag bearer for the election instead of Eyitayo Jegede of the Ahmed Makarfi group who was initially seen as the PDP candidate.

The court ordered to reinforce a verdict it earlier gave on June 29, which recognised the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the PDP and directed INEC to only deal with the faction instead of the Markafi group.

Since the release of INEC’s list of recognised candidates for the election, the Makarfi group, to which the Ondo state Governor, Olusegun Mimiko belongs, has been battling to have the ruling and the consequent INEC decision overruled.

The Jegede supporters have insisted that their man remained the authentic PDP candidate in Ondo, having emerged from a well attended and INEC-recognised primary election.

They vowed to explore all legal means to reclaim the mandate and present Eyitayo Jegede as the party’s candidate in the election.

A special panel of the Court of Appeal approved Mr Eyitayo Jegede’s request to appeal the judgement of the court that led to the substitution of his name with that of Mr Jimoh Ibrahim.

The panel, led by Justice Ibrahim Saulawa, said Mr Jegede had shown sufficient proof that the judgment of Justice Okon Abang recognising Senator Ali Modu Sherrif as the National Chairman of the PDP had grossly affected his rights.

The panel also dismissed an application filed by the factional chairman of the party in Ondo State, Mr Biyi Poroye, who is asking the new panel to recuse, on the ground of gross abuse of court process.

While dismissing the appeal, Justice Saulawa said that the application by Mr Poroye was borne out of mischief and deliberate calculation to frustrate the application for the leave of the court to appeal the Federal High Court’s judgment filed by Mr Jegede.

The Modu-Sheriff group reacted with accusations of bias against the Appeal Court panel and this led to the panel withdrawing from the case.