Ahead of the Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, has called for the postponement of the election.
Jegede, who got his name back on the list of the candidates that would participate in the election following an order of the Supreme Court, said the list of his party agents had not been received by the Independent National Electoral Commission, adding that his faction of the party had not got a copy of the voters’ register.
Presenting his protest letter to the Resident Electoral Commission in the state, Mr. Segun Agbaje, at the state’s headquarters of the commission in Akure, the state capital on Thursday, the PDP candidate said his request for election postponement was in line with the electoral laws.
He said, ” We want INEC to shift the date of the election to enable me enjoy the privileges the candidates of other parties will enjoy in the election.
” Before now, my party has written to inform INEC on what is needed to be done in line with the provision of the law, they have not replied the letter. There are three conditions for election postponement, these conditions are, violence, natural disaster or any other emergency.
” What we have here is a legal emergency, it must be attended to, it is a legal emergency.
But the REC said there was no going back in conducting the election on Saturday.
He said the commission was ready for the election and there was no way it could shift the election.
Agbaje said, ” We are going to conduct the election on Saturday, there is no going back, it is not the fault of the INEC that parties are having intra-party crisis. It will cost Nigeria a lot of money if the election is postponed.
” We have prepared well for the election, the sensitive materials are already out and to postpone the election, it will cost the election a lot of money.”
He, however, assured that the commission would defend the party if there is any post election litigation over the matter raised.
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