Ogun ADP Berrates OGSIEC On Imposition Of Administrative Fees On Aspirants, Says There Is Already A Court Ruling Against It

The Action Democratic Party, ADP has condemned Imposition of administrative fees on aspirants, seeking to contest the forthcoming Council elections in the state by the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC).

ADP in a statement signed by its State Publicity Secretary, Comrade Opomulero Dawud said the fee is illegal, null, void and against a valid court ruling.

The Party recalled that the same illegal move was introduced three years ago when OGSIEC under Babatunde Osibodu introduced the same fee, but was reversed due to the court judgment.

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ADP said OGSIEC in 2021 introduced the payment of non-refundable deposits of N200,000 and N100,000 for chairmanship and councillorship candidates respectively then.

As a Party and other stakeholders, we inundated OGSIEC with calls for the cancellation based on a Court judgment instituted by the National Conscience Party against OGSIEC and others”

We knew that the Electoral Body still had the CTC of the judgement in the case of the National Conscience Party of Nigeria (NCP) and others, versus OGSIEC and Attorney-General of Ogun State as delivered in May 2004 by Hon. Justice G.O Soremi to the effect that Sections 14,15 and 16 of the Ogun State Electoral Law of 2007 contravene Section 7 (4), 106 and 107 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended).

Till date, Ogun State House of Assembly has not amended this act, neither has the national Assembly that has the power to amend the constitution.

We therefore called on Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun to call Osibodu led OGSIEC to order and also use this avenue to call on national Assembly to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to stand as a good umpire in the local government elections in the State so as to guide against manipulation.

ADP averred that the commission is the creation of the law, and cannot do anything or take any step/decision that is antithetical to the law creating it.

The Party said the law is very clear on how OGSIEC is funded and anything outside that is an aberration.