2023: New Electoral Act Returned Ogun PDP To Ballot – Akinlade

The deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, Adekunle Akinlade, has asserted that if not for the new Electoral law his party won’t have been on the ballot for the 2023 general election.

Akinlade said it was the provision of the 2022 Electoral Act that brought candidates of the party in the state back to the ballot after the September 27 High Court judgement that sacked all PDP candidates in the state.

Naija News gathered that the Ogun PDP deputy governorship candidate made the assertion while addressing party members at his Agosasa Ward, in Ipokia Local Government Area of the state, during a ward meeting.

He explained that he is optimistic that the provision of the act would equally make it difficult for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the election in the polls next year.

Naija News recalls that an Abeokuta Federal High Court had on September 27 sacked all PDP candidates in Ogun when the party’s primary election was nullified.

However, an Appeal Court in Ibadan set aside that judgement on November 28 and reinstated all candidates and declaring that the two other factional PDP leaders Samson Bamgbose, Segun Seriki, who are now all at peace, wasn’t in line with the new electoral act.

The PDP chieftain advanced that it was a good chance for the PDP to come back on the ballot, saying the APC should be preparing its handover notes.

According to him, the signing of the new electoral law by President Muhammadu Buhari, “rigging is now impossible and it is time for the PDP to oust the APC in 2023 across the nation.”

He submitted that “I want to appeal to everyone to collect and keep their Permanent Voter’s Cards ready. We were rigged in the last elections at the collation centres. If not for the new electoral law, PDP would not be on the ballot for the 2023 poll in Ogun State. We relied on the new electoral law for our litigation and it gave us victory at the appellate court after the lower court had removed us from the ballot.

“I implore you all not to fall for the gimmicks of the APC. We must reject them with our votes in 2023. We must vote PDP from top to bottom in 2023 in Ogun State.”

Akinlade, who is the Director-General of the Atiku/Okowa campaign in Ogun, also claimed that he won the Ogun 2019 governorship election which he contested under the Allied People’s Movement, but he was rigged out as a result of the flaws in the old electoral law.