A civil society organisation, United Front for Democracy, (UFD) has claimed that the Social Democratic party (SDP) has not filed any petition against the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, who won the November 11 governorship election, Alhaji Usman Ododo.
The organisation also accused SDP of trying to smuggle in the petition through the back door against the 21 days window allowed by the electoral laws as amended.
Addressing a press conference, on Monday, in Lokoja, the convener of UFD, Yetunde Olubunmi said that the organisation is speaking out due to its commitment to protect democratic values and ensure that the judiciary is not slaughtered on the slab of political desperation and corruption.
“The 21-day window elapsed at the midnight of December 3, 2023. Section 134 of the Electoral Act is very clear as to when an electoral petition can be filed with all allegations and evidence relating to the petition front-loaded,” she said.
However, in a swift reaction, the spokesman for the Social Democratic party, Mr. Faruk Adejo-Audu said it is not true that the party SDP has not filed a petition against the outcome of the November 11 poll, stressing that the claim by the UFD is a way of discrediting the tribunal because A)C know fully well that the November 11 governorship election in the state cannot and would not stand the test of time.
By virtue of Section 134 of the Electoral Act, the SDP has failed to file their petition within the period allowed by Law and should therefore be made not to waste the time of the Honourable Panel.
“Inasmuch as we would want to leave the determination of the validity of a petition filed out of time to the Honourable Panel to determine, we owe the populace a social and legal responsibility to expose a clandestine move by the SDP and its candidate to file their petition through the backdoor and backdate same to circumvent the provisions of the Electoral Act. Our very credible source revealed that the SDP and its candidate are still preparing their petition with the intention of filing same within the week and have it backdated so as to make it look like it was filed within the legally stipulated duration. This must not be allowed to happen in the spirit of justice, equity and fairness.”
She expressed disappointment that the SDP is about to lose the opportunity to test the law with a competent petition especially when People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) opted to avoid the embarrassment of searching in futility for evidence by deciding not to challenge the election at the tribunal.
“How will the tribunal grant our legal team access to the inspection as it did last week of election materials if we have not filed any petition? They know that the will not stand the test of scrutiny,that is why they are contracting faceless group to malign the characters of the tribunal and its members.”
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