PDP heads to court and demands the apprehension of the returning officer over inconclusive Osun Gubernatorial election

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has headed to court over recently concluded Gubernatorial election in Osun state.

PDP is heading to quash the illegal declaration of the September 22, 2018 Osun Governorship election as inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The Peoples Democratic Party said"We insist that the polls have already been concluded and result announced in all polling and collation centres, thus bringing the exercise to its lawful conclusion and removing INEC powers to declare  the election inconclusive.

"Our electoral law is clear that once an election result is declared, INEC is bound to return a winner. INEC, in trying to play the card of the defeated APC, contravened the law by refusing to announce a return, even when the declared results have thrown up a winner.

"Section 69 of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended states that inter-alia"in an election to the office of the President or Governor whether or not contested and in any contested election to any other elective office, the result shall be ascertained by counting the vote cast.

"For each candidate and subject to the provision of section 133, 134 and 179 of the constitution, the candidate that receives the highest number of votes shall be declared elected by the appropriate returning officer.

"Concurrently, section 179 (2) (a) (b) of the constitution directly prescribed that ' a candidate for an election to the office of the governor of a state shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being two or more candidates- (a) he has the highest number of votes.

"...Cast at the election; and (b) he has no less than one quarter of all the votes cast in each of  at least two-thirds of all the local Government areas in the state.

"INEC's  action in  declaring a concluded election as inconclusive is therefore an annulment, totally duplicitous, constitutionally illegal, ultravires and as such null and void.

The Peoples Democratic Party has therefore demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of the Osun state Governorship election returning officer, Prof. Joseph Fuwape , for succumbing to the pressure of the All Progressive Congress, APC, and declaring a decided election as inconclusive.