The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is challenging in court, the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that the Osun State governorship election was inconclusive.
The election which was held on Saturday was won by the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Ademola Adeleke, but INEC declared it inconclusive following alleged electoral malpractices in some areas of the state.
Gboyega Oyetola, All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate came second.
But in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP said the electoral body was wrong in its decision.
It said with the clear victory of Adeleke, he should have been declared the governor of the state.
It therefore said it had resolved to go to court.
The party declared in the statement: “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 All Progressives Congress (APC), contravened the law by refusing to announce a return, even when the declared results have thrown up a winner.”
It added that: “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 votes cast for each candidate and subject to the provisions of sections 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 prescribes that a candidate for an election to the office of 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 not 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, ultra-vires and as such null and void.”
