Group warns INEC boss of allege plot by its staff to doctor date of submission of Delta APC candidates list

 By Atevure Princess,

A political pressure group that styles itself as Delta Central Truth Movement (DCTM) has called on the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and INEC Director of Legal Services to check activities of some alleged corrupt officials of the commission over alleged move to back-date the date of submission of Delta APC National Assembly candidates list to INEC from 18^th October, 2018.

 It would be recalled that a Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, the Delta State Capital on October 17^th, 2018 restrained the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from submitting of list of party candidates from Delta State for the just concluded 2019 elections to INEC pending the determination of the suit brought before it by the court

The All Progressives Congress (APC) is 1st respondent in the suit, National Chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole was joined as second respondent, while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Prophet Jones Erue as the 3rd and 4th respondents respectively.

In the ruling by Justice Toyin Adegoke, ordered all parties to the suit to maintain status quo and desist from submission of list of candidates to INEC till the substantive suit was heard.

But on 18^th October, 2018, the National Working Committee of the APC in disobedience of the court order, submitted the names of candidates for National Assembly election in Delta state, which include Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and others on 18^th of October, 2019 and two weeks later they submitted gubernatorial and State House of Assembly candidates to the INEC in Abuja.  

Chairman of the group, Comrade Martins Oderowho, in a signed statement, said some corrupt INEC officials in Abuja and Asaba are already working in one accord to give the Election Tribunal sitting in Delta state false information about the date of submission of APC National Assembly, Governorship and State House of Assembly candidates’ names to INEC in order to give credence to their candidacy. “Whereas Form 48 was duly served on the INEC and the APC for going against the court order”, he noted.

“We want to let the world know that the Certified True Copies, photographs and videos of their form submission ceremony and dates are everywhere in Nigeria and they will soon be committed to prison for disobedience of court orders and deliberate attempt to temper with documented evidence. That’s why the court of Appeal sitting in Benin on Friday 29^th March, 2019 struck out the application for joinder filed by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege for lack of merit.

 Also on Monday 15^th April, the same Court of Appeal sitting in Benin, Edo State struck a joinder appeal filed by Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru, challenging the Federal High Court judgment of March 18, 2019”, he added.

The group reiterated in the statement that all political parties’ candidates forms were displayed in all INEC offices across the 25 Local Government Areas of Delta state and photocopies are everywhere because some persons took pictures of the displayed copies and even detached some of the copies home. “So almost every politician and members of the public in Delta state are in possession of the submitted forms bearing dates of submission and INEC stamps”, said Oderowho.