Abang Declares Jimoh Ibrahim PDP Candidate for Ondo Guber Poll

A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept Jimoh Ibrahim as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo for the forthcoming governorship election in the state.

In a statement, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said that it's choice of candidate for the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo state still remained Hon. Eyitayo Jegede despite the ruling of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court Abuja.

Justice Okon Abang gave the order while ruling on an application filed by the Chairman and Secretary of the PDP in Ondo State - Prince Biyi Poroye and Ademola A. Genty and their counterparts in Osun and Oyo states.

The application was for the enforcement of a June 29, 2016 judgment of the court affirming Poroye, Genty and others, who emerged from the May 10, 2016 congresses of the party in the South west, as the authentic leaders of the party in the Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Lagos states.

In the June 29 judgment, the court had ordered INEC to accept only the name of the candidate sent by the Pororye and Genty Executive Committee as the actual candidate of the party for the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State.

Poroye and Genty, who applied to the court for themselves and on behalf of the Ondo State Executive Committee of the PDP, said the postjudgment application was informed by INEC's refusal to accept their candidate, as directed by the court in its June 29 judgment.

The plaintiffs said INEC was aware that the judgment of the court extended to five other states where the general elections would hold in 2019 and should have taken cognizance of the implications of the judgment for Ondo State where elections would hold in 2016, but chose to ignore the obvious implication.

The applicants also stated that INEC knew that the judgment was predicated upon the May 19, 2016 letter of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP, which was addressed to it (INEC), confirming to it that Pororye and Genty are leaders of the authentic state Executive Committee of the party in Ondo State.

In his ruling, Justice Abang held that INEC had no reason not to accept the candidate submitted to INEC by the plaintiffs.

The judge held that not only did INEC participate in the proceedings leading to the June 29 judgment, it had also not appealed the judgement.

The judge wondered why the commission chose not to obey it.