The Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its gubernatorial candidate in the November 11, 2023, Kogi State election have urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disregard the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Kogi State government’s plea to halt the inspection of materials used in the poll.
According to Daily Post, SDP, dismissing APC and Kogi’s call for inspection cancellation, asserted that the request lacks merit against the standing court order for the inspection.
In a statement from its Governorship Campaign Council Spokesperson, Faruk Adejoh-Audu, issued in Abuja, they deemed APC and Kogi’s appeal for cancellation as both unusual and unfounded, given the existing court directive for the inspection.
The APC, represented by Kogi State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kingsley Fanwo, had urged INEC to prevent the SDP’s legal team from continuing the inspection of materials from the November 11, 2023, gubernatorial election.
He argued that the inspection, mandated by the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, would unfairly favor the opposition party in the ongoing legal dispute. However, SDP countered, labeling APC and Kogi’s move as a desperate attempt to hinder the hearing of its petition within the statutory 180-day timeline.
They claimed that in November 2023, the Kogi State government orchestrated an incident where individuals clad in SDP T-shirts, purportedly political thugs, were sent to the INEC office to demand the cancellation of the court-ordered inspection.
They said that this marked the first time in Nigeria’s history that election materials had to be moved to Abuja to safeguard them from sponsored thugs aiming to disrupt the judicial review process.
They expressed that the Kogi State government’s recent call to INEC mirrors its earlier efforts to discredit the judicial review process and potentially delay the proceedings.
They emphasized their commitment to pursuing their petition within the statutory timeframe, despite attempts to hinder the process through various means, including deploying thugs and spreading falsehoods.
