‘No formal primary held’ — SDP asks court to nullify Oni’s candidacy in Ekiti guber poll

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has asked a federal high court in Ado Ekiti to nullify the emergence of Segun Oni as the party’s governorship candidate.

The suit marked FHC/C/31/2022 and filed on Wednesday, has the SDP as the first plaintiff, while Ishola Agboola, Tunde Alabi and Kehinde Rufus are the second, third and fourth plaintiffs, respectively.

According to the plaintiffs, Oni did not participate in any valid primary.

They averred that Oni was nominated by Shehu Gabam and Olu Agunloye, who they claim were not legally and constitutionally-recognised as the national chairman and the national secretary of the party, respectively.

The SDP is seeking an order of the court restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising Oni as the candidate of the party in the governorship election slated for Saturday.

The party is also seeking a declaration that the primary of the party organised under the supervision of Gabam and Agunloye, which “never held formally”, is wrongful, illegal, null and void and couldn’t have produced a validly-nominated governorship candidate for the Ekiti poll.

Furthermore, they are seeking an order of injunction restraining Gabam and Agunloye from further parading themselves and/or holding themselves out as national chairman and national secretary or as officers of SDP.

On January 26, Oni lost the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary in Ekiti to Bisi Kolawole, the preferred candidate of Ayodele Fayose, a former governor of the state.

Oni then resigned his membership of the PDP on February 5, days after failing to secure the party’s ticket.

According to him, he left the PDP because of “cheating”.

Meanwhile, as of January 2022, the national executive council of the SDP had suspended Agunloye and Gabam over alleged misconduct.