By Emma Ombugadu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has told the Federal High Court in Abuja why it excluded Ogun State PDP candidate, Mr Ladi Adebutu, from its list of candidates cleared for the 2027 general elections.
In a counter-affidavit deposed to by Mr Mustapha Mohammed, a Chief Program Analyst in its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Department, the Commission told the court that Adebutu’s name was not found in the register of members the PDP earlier submitted to it.
It told the court that it found only the name of the PDP’s deputy governorship candidate in the state, Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi, in the register.
INEC’s counter-affidavit was in opposition to a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2573/2026, which the PDP and its Ogun State governorship candidate, Adebutu, filed against it.
While the PDP is the 1st plaintiff in the matter, Adebutu is listed as the 2nd plaintiff, with INEC named as the sole defendant.
It will be recalled that INEC had omitted Adebutu’s name from the final list of 13 candidates cleared to contest the Ogun State governorship election billed for February 6, 2027.
Dissatisfied with the action, the PDP approached the court for an order compelling INEC to reverse its decision by recognising Adebutu’s candidacy.
NEC: We Did Due Diligence
However, in the process it filed to challenge the competence of the suit, INEC said it had done due diligence before the final list of candidates for the election was published.
According to the deponent:
“I know as a fact that before the Governorship Candidates Final List was published, the ICT department conducted a search on the membership register submitted by the 1st plaintiff and during the search, the ICT department found the name of the 1st plaintiff’s candidate fielded as Deputy Governor of Ogun State (Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi) in the register but could not find the name of the 2nd plaintiff.
“The search was also conducted to find a possible match for the name of the 2nd plaintiff, but no possible match was found in the Ogun State membership register.
“That I know as a fact that all the queries conducted on the membership register in the flash drives (PDF/read only) submitted to the defendant by the 1st plaintiff do not contain the name of the 2nd plaintiff.
“That the flash drive attached to the plaintiff’s affidavit and further affidavit in support of the Originating Summons was shown to me and I have carefully examined it, and I state that the contents of the flash drive are not the same as those submitted to the defendant.
“That the first flash drive submitted by the 1st plaintiff to the defendant on 22 April 2026 had files named Ogun 01-038, while the second flash drive submitted to the defendant had files named Ogun 01-04, with serial numbers of members 1–18,973 and 1–19,308 respectively.
“That serial number 1536 on the membership register submitted by the 1st plaintiff to the defendant contains the name of one Lugboso Sunday Seun and not the name of the 2nd plaintiff,” INEC’s witness further averred.
It told the court that two flash drives were submitted to it alongside the hard-copy membership register, and neither contained the name and particulars of the 2nd plaintiff, Adebutu.
Following the adoption of final addresses by the parties, Justice Peter Lifu fixed Friday for judgment.
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), Arabambi Abayomi, has alleged a plot to compromise the court into bypassing the Supreme Court judgment that activated Section 287(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and compelled INEC to exclude political parties that failed to comply with Section 77(5)–(7) of the Electoral Act, 2026, in relation to the fielding of candidates.
Abayomi, in a statement he made available to newsmen, further accused the Ogun State PDP candidate of perjury, alleging that he made false claims in an affidavit he deposed to in support of the suit against INEC.
“The specific serial number Adebutu swore belonged to him — Serial Number 1536 — actually belongs to one Lugboso Sunday Seun. INEC’s searches of the authentic registers found no match for Adebutu’s name whatsoever.
“For a litigant to approach the Federal High Court and swear to an affidavit containing demonstrably false particulars is perjury.
“It is an affront to the administration of justice. The evidential weight against Adebutu is not merely unfavourable, it is devastating,” Abayomi stated.
Besides urging the Attorney General of the Federation to initiate an investigation into the alleged perjury, he called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to look into the alleged plot to influence the outcome of the case.
