The National Conscience Party (NCP) and its flagbearer in the forthcoming Edo governorship election, Pastor Peters Osawaru Omoragbon, have explained why they dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to court over the omission of the party in the provisional list recently released, reports ITREALMS.
INEC, ITREALMS reports has tentatively fixed the Edo governorship election for September 19, 2020.
Confirming this to ITREALMS, Pastor Omoragbon, said his party has filed a suit challenging INEC alongside the AGF at the Federal High Court in Lagos.
“… With Suit Number FHC/L/CS/544/20, we have challenged INEC’s current decision to omit our Party’s name from the political parties fielding candidates for the Edo State elections,” he said.
Omoragbon insisted that he is fully still in the race to salvage the people of Edo State, declaring “I am still in the race, no retreat, no surrender,” and urged his supporters not to despair, especially since the list is provisional and not final.
The defendants in the current case, ITREALMS gathered are the Attorney General of the Federation and, and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
In this suit, NCP is seeking reliefs to declare INEC action without an order of a court of competent jurisdiction, as “unlawful, arbitrary, oppressive, repressive, partisan, undemocratic, an abuse of power and office, and a breach of the Plaintiffs’ right to fair hearing guaranteed in section 36 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The party also described INEC’s action as crooked, recalling that if NCP had not gone to court in 2002 and was denied registration without first applying to INEC, there would have been no locus standi for them to go to court in the first place.
“This is the crux of my resolve to continue participating in this election,” he told ITREALMS, stressing that the suit would serve as evidence of NCP commitment to political participation in Nigeria.
By extension, Omoragbon pointed out that INEC’s action amounted to disenfranchisement and denial to exercise his freedom to associate.
This action is not mine alone but also of leadership of the Party led by the national chairman Mallam Tanko Yunusa, who is the second Plaintiff in the above suit under the coordination of the party secretariat.
“We communicated with INEC, the State Security Service, the Nigerian Police as required by Law. We have our evidences. We conducted our primaries and it was duly recorded before the deadline for party primaries,” he said.
The NCP gubernatorial candidate maintained that his campaign is continuing in earnest and would advance with the people’s programme under the 10-Care initiative of the party manifestoes, both vigorously and vehemently.
“We shall not retreat, nor shall we surrender our struggle to the corrupt tendencies of the ruling class,” he asserted.
Further, Omorogban emphasised that the court action by him and NCP is “a battle for the enthronement of the Rule of Law in Nigeria using the Edo State governorship election in September as a litmus test.”
Uboshe Uboshe/Editor
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