The Independent National Electoral Commission has explained why it excluded the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Ogun State, Ladi Adebutu, from its final list of candidates, saying his name could not be found in the party membership register submitted to the commission.
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INEC stated this in a counter-affidavit filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja in response to a suit instituted by Adebutu and the PDP.
The commission said its search of the membership register submitted by the party produced the name of the PDP deputy governorship candidate, Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi, but did not produce any record matching Adebutu’s name.
Adebutu and the PDP, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2573/2026, are asking the court, among other reliefs, to compel INEC to recognise Adebutu as the party’s governorship candidate.
A Chief Programme Analyst in INEC’s Information and Communication Technology Department, Mustapha Mohammed, stated in the counter-affidavit that the commission searched the PDP membership register before publishing the final list of candidates.
Mohammed said the search located the name of Oyeyemi but failed to locate Adebutu’s name, even after the ICT department checked possible variations of his name.
“The ICT department found the name of the first plaintiff’s candidate fielded as Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi, in the register but could not find the name of the second plaintiff,” he said.
Mohammed further stated that the two flash drives submitted by the PDP alongside its hard-copy membership register did not contain Adebutu’s name or personal details.
He also said the flash drive attached to the PDP’s affidavit in support of the suit contained records different from those originally submitted to INEC.
According to him, the first flash drive submitted on April 22, 2026, contained files named Ogun 01-038, while the second contained files named Ogun 01-04.
He said the two sets of files contained membership serial numbers ranging from 1 to 18,973 and 1 to 19,308, respectively.
Mohammed also disputed Adebutu’s claim to membership serial number 1536, stating that the record submitted to INEC identified the holder of that number as Lugboso Sunday Seun.
INEC maintained that it carried out due diligence before publishing the final list of candidates for the Ogun governorship election.
Meanwhile, Justice Peter Lifu, before whom the suit is pending, has adjourned the matter until November 13 for judgment.
The court is expected to determine whether INEC was right to exclude Adebutu from the final list or whether the commission should be compelled to recognise him as the PDP governorship candidate.
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