Alleged forgery: PDP drags Ogun gov aspirant, INEC to EFCC

The Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State has alerted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate a governorship aspirant of the party, Jimi Lawal, for allegedly forging the delegates’ list.

What happened: The party accused Lawal of forging the delegates’ list in collusion with top officials of INEC to “deceive, manipulate and misrepresent facts”.

Lawal and his loyalists had raised an objection and rejected a delegates’ list purportedly brought from national secretariat of the party during the May 25 governorship primary of the party which produced Ladi Adebutu as the governorship candidate of the party.

Lawal who presented another delegates’ list as the authentic list alleged that, the persons on the list used by electoral panel for the primaries were not democratically elected at the ward, local government and state congresses.

Following this, three members of the party, Taiwo Olabode Idris, Kehinde Akala and Alhaji Ayinde Monsuri dragged the party, Adebutu and the INEC to a Federal High court sitting in Abeokuta, the state capital, challenging the authenticity of the delegates’ lists used for the conduct of the primaries.

What the court had decided: Delivering her judgment, Justice O.O Oguntoyinbo nullified all the primary elections conducted by the party in the state.

Justice Oguntoyinbo also ordered the party to conduct fresh primaries within the next 14 days.

PDP's response to the court's verdict: The PDP in separate petitions by its lawyer, Oladimeji Hassan Balogun, dated Thursday, October 27, to the chairmen of EFCC and ICPC, demanded the investigation of Lawal and some officials of INEC in the state for allegedly suppressing the authentic delegates’ list of the party.

The party in another petition, also dated Thursday October 27 and addressed to the national chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, accused the Head of Department and Party Monitoring of the state INEC and Director of Election and Party Monitoring department at INEC headquarters in Abuja of “deliberate and criminal suppression of PDP authentic delegates’ list with the view to fraudulently substitute the original documents with an unlawful delegate result purportedly submitted by Lawal”.

The party, therefore called for the investigation of the INEC officials involved in the alleged fraud.