The All Progressives Congress on Wednesday dragged the Peoples Democratic Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission before an Abuja Federal High Court over alleged electoral fraud in the bye-election for the Delta Central Senatorial District.
APC and its candidate in the October 12, 2013 election, Oghenetega Emerhor, told the court that PDP connived with an INEC official, one Olawale Dawodu, to forge documents which were used to endorse the Nomination Form of PDP candidate, Senator Edesiri Aguariavwodo, who was declared the winner of the poll.
The plaintiffs alleged that having failed to meet the deadline set by INEC for the submission of nomination forms, PDP bribed Dawodu to write a false date of receipt on the nomination form of its candidate.
Contending that Aguariavwodo was not a valid candidate in the bye-election, the plaintiffs asked the court to order the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General of the Federation to prosecute the PDP, its candidate, Aguariavwodo, and the accused INEC official, Dawodu, for forgery.
They equally asked the court to order INEC to immediately withdraw the certificate of return issued to Aguariavwodo upon his declaration as the winner of the bye-election.
In the event of the withdrawal of the certificate issued to the PDP candidate, APC is asking the court to order INEC to immediately issue a certificate of return to Emerhor as the validly nominated candidate, who scored the highest number of votes – 29, 075 – in the bye-election.
In the same vein, APC is asking the court to declare that the PDP candidate did not comply with section 31(2) of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended, and therefore was not a candidate in the bye-election.
