Ogun tribunal grants Labour Party access to election materials

The Ogun Election Petitions Tribunal yesterday ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow the Labour Party (LP) access the materials it used to conduct the March 9 governorship and house of assembly polls in the state.

The Justice Chinwe Onyeabor-led panel also dismissed a petition filed by the Oginni Olaposi faction of the party, citing “incompetence and abuse of court process.” The petitioner is the political group’s secretary.

The other was submitted by the party’s chairman, Abayomi Arabambi, and its governorship candidate, Mrs. Modupe Sanyaolu.

Both petitions are challenging the unlawful exclusion of LP and its logo from the ballot and nullification of the entire exercise.

In the judgment read by Justice D.A. Oyigbenu, the tribunal held that the first petition was filed outside the 21 days known to law while the second fully satisfied the constitutional provision.

Shortly after the ruling, counsel to Sanyaolu, Hassan Balogun, moved an ex parte motion ordering the electoral umpire to allow the petitioners, their agents and experts to “inspect and obtain” the certified true copies of materials and documents used for the conduct of the election.

In the ruling delivered by Justice M.L. Omar, the tribunal granted the orders as prayed.

In a related development, an aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the November 2019 Kogi State governorship election, Dr. Joseph Erico Ameh, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the exercise was free, fair and violence-free.

Speaking yesterday in Lokoja, he charged the Federal Government to rise to the occasion by containing gunrunning and militancy before, during and after the election.

Ameh advised the citizens against entertaining fears regarding the upcoming polls.