INEC obeys court order, lists Adebutu as Ogun PDP guber candidate

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has listed Oladipupo Adebutu as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun state.

Two factions of the PDP had conducted parallel primaries that produced Adebutu and Segun Sowunmi as candidates of the party for the 2023 governorship election.

Jimi Lawal, another governorship hopeful, and other candidates had approached the Ogun high court to challenge the authenticity of the Sikirulahi Ogundele-led executive of the party that produced Adebutu.

The court had nullified all the governorship primaries conducted by the party in the state and ordered a fresh exercise.

Consequently, INEC omitted Ogun PDP when it published the list of governorship candidates for the 2023 elections.

However, a federal high court in Abuja, on December 1, affirmed Adebutu as the PDP governorship candidate.

In a statement on Friday, INEC said it had amended the list of candidates in compliance with the court order.

“INEC recalled that it published the final list of governorship candidates on October 4, 2022, in accordance with the provisions of Section 32 of the Electoral Act, 2022,” the statement reads.

“After the said publication, the Commission was served Orders of Court in respect of the nomination of candidates for Governorship, Senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly elections.

“By virtue of the provision of Section 287 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), the Commission is bound to enforce the Orders of Court on the Nomination of candidates by political parties in the affected Constituencies.

“Consequently, the lists of candidates in respect of the attached senatorial districts and federal constituencies, governorship and state house of assembly elections are amended pursuant to the orders of court served on the commission as at 21st December, 2022 for upload on the commission’s website.”