Kogi guber: We’ll go to Court if INEC fails to review polls — SDP’s Adebayo

A chieftain and presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Barr Adewole Adebayo, has said his party will head to court if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) fails to review the Kogi State governorship election held on Saturday.

Adebayo disclosed that the party at the national level, the national chairman of the party, Shehu Garba, its secretary, Dr Olu Agunloye, and members of the NWC have adopted the option of going to court to seek redress.

He pointed out that INEC’s announcement of the result is not in compliance with the law and its regulations.

He said, “This time, I am not the candidate, but he is our candidate. We supported him. We worked with him, and he said INEC was transparently dishonest and disorganised and that there was no point for him to go to court. The party has met and reviewed the process.

The people, everybody who voted for us, and our supporters within and outside Kogi State have all said we should give INEC an opportunity to correct itself.

What we are doing now is believing in INEC, hoping that INEC itself believes in democracy and wants a country that works and is an entrance institution into government. We want to make sure that INEC itself allows politicians who come to power to know that institutions must work.

So, we are hoping INEC will review the election. But if it refuses to review it, then we have the option to go to court, and I think the party at the national level, Shehu Garba, our national chairman, our national secretary, Dr Olu Agunloye, and members of the NWC have said they are going to court, and we are working towards that.”

Speaking further, he said, “We are doing our own review with an open mind. We are not desperate to win. We want to win within the law. We are not out to take the opportunity to throw a shot at INEC. We went into the election with a victory speech or a concession speech.

Either way, we are okay. However, we found out that INEC’s announcement of the result is not in compliance with the law and with the regulations set by INEC. For that reason, INEC, as a commission, is by law given an opportunity like before, where someone could do anything in their name and say sorry.

We can’t do anything about it. Under the new electoral act, INEC has seven days to do a review, and we are giving and assisting INEC with all information to ensure they listen to other people, including the observers, and I believe INEC should review it.

If the review is done properly and thoroughly, even if the review doesn’t favour us, we are SDP. We are law-abiding parties, and we respect the country.

We will abide by it. But if it is not done or poorly done, we would take the extra step of calling on the judiciary to intervene and look into it, and we are making sure that we narrow our claim to the judiciary to things we are sure of.”

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