Former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro
The
Peoples Democratic Party has responded to allegations made by a former
Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, in his suit before a
Federal High Court in Abuja challenging the conduct and the outcome of
the party’s governorship primary in Lagos State.
The PDP denied Obanikoro’s allegations
in a counter-affidavit it filed in opposition to Obanikoro’s application
for an interim injunction seeking to restrain the PDP from submitting
any name as its governorship candidate in the state to the Independent
National Electoral Commission.
Both the PDP and INEC are the
defendants. INEC was not represented in court when the matter came up
for hearing before Justice Ahmed Mohammed on Tuesday.
The party, through its counsel, Paul
Ananaba, had also filed a separate preliminary objection in opposition
to the suit with which Obanikoro is seeking the nullification of the
primary on the grounds of alleged irregularities.
The party insisted that there was no
over-voting as the earlier announcement of 806 as the accredited voters
was a tabulation error.
The PDP Youth Leader in Lagos State,
Samuel Ladeinde, stated in the supporting affidavit that, “At the
conclusion of voting, a total of 864 ballot papers were issued to
accredited delegates. In the Electoral Committee Chairman’s (Senator
Saidi Kumo’s) opening remarks, he mentioned that 806 delegates were
accredited.
“But this initial remark was a
tabulation error, which occurred by the omission to tabulate the
following list of delegates, even though they had been duly accredited
for the exercise.:
“Ikeja ad hoc delegates – 30; Ikeja
automatic delegates – seven; Ojo automatic delegates – six; Mushin
automatic delegates -eight; Alimosho automatic delegates – seven, and
the total is 58.
“The agents and aspirants were clearly
informed at the electoral desk of this tabulation omission which they
accepted without opposition before the counting of the votes cast
commenced. During the voting, the agents of the aspirants had verified
each delegate before the delegate was given a ballot paper to go and
vote, thus ensuring that only duly accredited delegates voted and each
of such delegates received only one ballot paper.”
Obanikoro had in his suit filed on
December 15, 2014, asked Justice Ahmed Mohammed to nullify the primary
on the grounds that it was marred by irregularities, including
over-voting, disruption of the exercise by armed thugs and improper
accreditation of voters.
He also accused a leader of the party in
the state, Chief Olabode George, and the winner of the December 8
primary, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, of recruiting armed thugs to manipulate the
exercise.
He averred in a supporting affidavit
that he saw the police recovered five guns and rounds of ammunition and
live cartridges from the thugs brought to the venue of the primary.
Obanikoro, with 343 votes, came second
behind Agbaje who polled 432 votes to clinch the party’s ticket. Three
other aspirants participated in the poll.
But he said there were 806 delegates
accredited for the primaries but “surprisingly from the 806 accredited
delegates; the electoral officers returned a total number of 866 votes.”
He added that the accreditation of
delegates which ought to last between 8am and 12noon as stipulated by
the Electoral Guidelines published by the PDP, did not start until as
late as 6.30
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