15 hours ago
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An erstwhile candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Chief Olusola Ebiseni, has slammed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for his disqualification from the November 16 governorship election in Ondo State.
Ebiseni was the candidate of the Labour Party (LP) before he was controversially removed on the alleged order of the Court of Appeal and replaced by Dr Ayo Olorunfemi. He, however, said no order removed him as the candidate of the party.
In a statement, Ebiseni said it took INEC one month to open its portal to uphold his name as LP candidate but took less than 24 to replace him as the authentic candidate of the party.
He described the action of the electoral umpire to weaken the opposition.
Ebiseni, who is the Secretary General of Afenifere, insisted that the electoral umpire was wrong to have removed his name from the ballot as there was no suit challenging his nomination as LP’s candidate.
According to him, “Contrary to the claims in some uninformed quarters, the issue of the validity of our candidacy midwife by Ayo Olorunfemi and executed by the Abure-led National Working Committee was not raised by either the Party, INEC, or the Court.”
He said, “It is also not correct that we were disqualified from contesting the election as no such prayers were before any court which is no fathers Christmas to have given reliefs not sought.
“Thus in its illegal resurrection of the dead candidacy of Olorunfemi following his irreversible withdrawal backed by affidavit, INEC was only playing its part in a national orchestra of electoral gangsterism
His words “The fact that INEC which took more than one month to open its portal to upload our names and defiantly refused to allow our agents’ names uploaded would, within less than 48 hours, wrongly interpret and enforce against us few hours to the election a judgment details of which was not read in the open court and copy of which it has not been served.”
Ebiseni in his statement titled Because I am Involved” said “The omission by INEC to upload my name and that of my running mate, Mr Adedayo Ezekiel Awude, as the new candidates of the Party consequent upon the irreversible withdrawal by the initial placeholder candidates was the cause of action in the Originating Summons filed by our counsel of Dr O.J Onoja SAN and Associates on the 6th of August 2024 for an order of Court compelling the Commission to so do which the Federal High Court Abuja per Honourable Justice Emeka Nwite granted on the 27th September 2024.”
The erstwhile candidate said “The two Appeals against the judgment of Justice Nwite decided on the 13th November one in which Ayo Olorunfemi sought to Appeal as an Interested Party was dismissed and the other Appeal N0 CA/ABJ/ CV/1172/2024 by Abure was allowed on the ground of jurisdiction of the lower court.
“We challenged the judgment by filing a Notice of Appeal to the Supreme Court, Motion for Stay of Execution, which were all served on INEC the following day on the 14th of November.
“It was the same political voodoo that saw to our being excluded in the gubernatorial debate, an intellectual exercise by candidates to juxtapose and share our visions for the greater good of our state and people.”
Ebiseni said he had set legal machinery in motion to vindicate his name against the libellous accusations by Olorunfemi in the media of the alleged forgery of his documents and signature.
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