A few weeks to the October 10 governorship election in Ondo State, An Akure based lawyer, Mr Femi Emmanuel Emodamori has dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
The lawyer is seeking an order to compel the commission to publish the personal particulars of the Deputy Governor of Ondo state Hon. Alfred Agboola Ajayi, who is also the governorship candidate of the Zenith Labour Party, ZLP.
Mr Emodamori in a motion filed through his counsel, Ifedayo Olanipekun, sought the order in line with section 31(3) of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended).
Highlighting the grounds upon which the reliefs are sought, the lawyer noted that the electoral body is under a statutory obligation to publish the personal particulars of all the candidates for any election in the constituency where such candidates intend to contest the elections.
He recalled that INEC had on July 31, 2020, published the particulars of all the other candidates for the Ondo State Governorship Elections.
According to him, the name of Hon. Alfred Agboola Ajayi was listed by the Respondent as No.33 in its Final List of candidates for the Governorship Election, which was published at its Ondo State Headquarters on Friday 21st August 2020.
He said Agboola was listed as the new candidate substituted by Z.L.P for its earlier nominated candidate, Rotimi Benjamin, after the 18th August 2020 deadline for substitution of candidates as contained in the Respondent’s Guidelines and Timetable for the election.
However, Emodamori said the electoral umpire had failed or refused to publish the particulars of Hon. Alfred Agboola Ajayi of the Zenith Labour Party.
The lawyer noted that the Court is imbued with the power to compel the Respondent by an order of mandamus to publish the said personal particulars of Hon Alfred Agboola Ajayi.
Everyevery.ng had earlier reported that Emodamori had accused Agboola of submitting a forged certificate to the INEC.
In a letter sent to the Newsdesk of Everyevery.ng, the lawyer also asked the electoral body to publish the particulars of the deputy governor.
You will recall that the legal practitioner had last week issued a seven-day ultimatum to INEC to publish personal particulars of the ZLP candidate or face litigation(Read more here).