Candidate Sues Lagos PDP Chairman

A Peoples Democratic Party’s House of Representatives aspirant, Abdulkabir Lawal, has sued the PDP Lagos chairman, Captain Olatunji Shelle, alleging that he transferred his mandate to Adebola Gbabijo.

Lawal’s claim is that Shelle has given the party’s mandate to Gbabijo, who he claimed lost to him by a single vote. Lawal grossed 29 votes.

The House of Representative aspirant, appeared before the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday as he sought a declaration that authenticates him as PDP candidate representing Epe Federal Constituency.

Dr. Yemi Oke, Lawal’s lawyer, pleaded Justice Mohammed Yunusa to order the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to replace Gbabijo’s name with Lawal’s on the INEC register.

Lawal argued that Gbabijo had one proxy vote, a vote on behalf of a former treasurer of the party, who was already deceased by the time the elections took place.

“By virtue of the report of the Lagos State Electoral Panel, the proxy vote was voided and I was declared winner having polled 29 votes, while my opponent polled 28 votes at the primary. But to my utmost chagrin, I was denied the Form CF001 at the PDP secretariat by the 1st respondent on the grounds that the election for the Epe Federal Constituency is inconclusive.

“To my utter chagrin, the 2nd respondent was handed the Form CF001 and purportedly nominated as the 3rd respondent’s candidate for Epe Federal Constituency. It is clear that I have been denied my constitutional right by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents by the substitution of my candidacy for the 2nd respondent.”

The applicant appealed to the court to nullify Gbabijo’s nomination to INEC and confirm his admission as candidate for the Epe Federal Constituency into the House of Representatives as PDP’s candidate.