2019 Poll: Court sacks Ondo Rep as PDP candidate

A federal High Court sitting in Akure, Ondo State has sacked a House of Representatives member, Mr. Bode Ayorinde and ordered him to stop parading himself as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the February poll.

The court also ordered the National Secretariat of the PDP to remove Ayorinde’s name and send that of Sodiq Obanoyen to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as the candidate of the party.

Recall that Ayorinde who represents Owo/Ose Federal Constituency recently defected from the All Progressive Congress to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party but lost the party’s primary to Sodiq Obanoyen.

Obanoyen scored 107 votes while Ayorinde polled 73 votes in the primary held in Owo in October, 2018.
However, the PDP instead of presenting the name of Obanoyen to INEC sent that of Ayorinde despite his defeat at the primary.

Not satisfied with the development, Obanoyen challenged the action of the party at the court.
The suit had the PDP, the state of the party chairman Clement Faboyede, Ayorinde and the INEC as the first, second, third and forth defendants respectively.

Delivering judgement, Justice Abdul Dogo struck out the prayers of the first and third defendants for lack of merit.