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2023: Trouble As Court Nullifies All PDP Primaries In Ogun State

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The 2023 primary elections held by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State have been nullified in their entirety.

This is as Justice O.O Oguntoyinbo of the Federal High court sitting in Abeokuta, the state capital on Tuesday, ordered a fresh rerun of primaries by the PDP within 14 days.

The court order nullifies the governorship, Senate, House of Representatives and the House of Assembly primaries conducted by the party.

The order also barred Ladi Adebutu from parading himself as the PDP governorship candidate in Ogun State and instructed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to recognize his candidacy.

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Naija News reports the order was given by the judge while delivering judgement in a suit filed by three members of the party, Taiwo Olabode Idris, Kehinde Akala and Alhaji Ayinde Monsuri against the outcome of the party primries.

The party chieftains had argued that the list of delegates used to conduct the May 25 primary election of the party was not authentic.

The plaintiffs therefore prayed the court to nullify or set aside the state congress/indirect primary election, held by the 1st defendant (PDP) on 25th of May, 2022 “for the purpose of choosing the candidate which the 1st Defendant intends to nominate/sponsor at the 2023 Governorship election in Ogun State based on the list of delegates who were not democratically elected at the ward congress.”

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They also sought an order directing the 2nd Defendant (INEC) “to disregard and/or refrain from giving effect to the results of the alleged 1st Defendant’s indirect primary election held on the 25th of May, 2022 based on the list of ad-hoc delegates who were not elected at the ward congresses constituted by the 1st Defendant for that purpose”.

Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Reacts

The lawyer of the plaintiffs, Thaddeus Idenyi, said the court did the right thing by nullifying the election. He urged the PDP to obey the court order and do the right thing this time around.

“The implication of the judgement is obvious, the PDP will have to put their hats together and then conduct a fresh primary as ordered by the court.

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“This time around, the court was specific that they have to use the list that has been certified by INEC because after the primary, those lists were submitted to INEC as parts of its report of covering those ward congresses held, so the court has now said that is the list which must be considered in the conduct of the fresh primaries, so the PDP had to just put their house together and use those lists to conduct a fresh primary,” he said.

PDP Position

However, the spokesman of PDP in Ogun State, Akinloye Bankole, said the party would study the judgement and come out with the next line of action.