The Independent National Electoral Commission has explained in court why the Peoples Democratic Party’s Ogun State governorship candidate, Ladi Adebutu, was left out of its final list of candidates.
In a counter-affidavit filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja, the commission said Adebutu’s name did not appear in the membership register the PDP submitted.
The document was filed in response to a suit by the PDP and Adebutu, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2573/2026, asking the court to compel INEC to recognise him as the party’s candidate in the February 6, 2027, election.
Thirteen candidates were cleared for the poll.
Deposing on behalf of the commission, a Chief Programme Analyst in its ICT Department, Mustapha Mohammed, said the register contained the name of Adebutu’s running mate, Kolapo Oyeyemi, but not his.
He said the department searched for different variations of Adebutu’s name without success.
“The ICT department found the name of the first plaintiff’s candidate fielded as Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi, in the register but could not find the name of the second plaintiff,” he stated.
Mohammed further told the court that neither of the two flash drives the PDP submitted with its hard-copy register contained Adebutu’s details.
He also claimed that the flash drive the party attached to its court affidavit contained different records from those earlier submitted to INEC.
The INEC official faulted Adebutu’s claim that his membership registration number was 1536, saying the commission’s records showed that number belonged to Lugboso Sunday Seun.
The commission maintained that it acted diligently before publishing the list.
Justice Peter Lifu fixed Friday for judgment after the parties adopted their final written addresses.
Reacting to INEC’s position, Labour Party (LP) chieftain, Abayomi Arabambi, accused Adebutu of perjury over the membership-number claim.
He called on the Attorney-General of the Federation to investigate the matter, and urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to look into alleged attempts to sway the outcome of the case.
Adebutu had earlier told supporters that his registration number in the party’s membership drive was 1536, which he said proved he remained a PDP member.
