The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has told the Federal High Court in Abuja that it excluded the Ogun State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ladi Adebutu, from the list of candidates for the 2027 election because his name was missing from the party’s membership register submitted to the commission.
INEC said its search of the register showed the name of the party’s deputy governorship candidate, Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi, but did not produce any record matching Adebutu’s name.
The commission stated this in a counter-affidavit filed in response to a suit instituted by the PDP and Adebutu, seeking an order compelling it to recognise him as the party’s governorship candidate.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2573/2026, followed the omission of Adebutu’s name from the final list of 13 candidates cleared to contest the Ogun State governorship election scheduled for February 6, 2027.
In the counter-affidavit deposed to by Mustapha Mohammed, a Chief Program Analyst in INEC’s Information and Communication Technology, ICT, Department, the commission said it searched the membership register before publishing the final list.
Mohammed said the search found Oyeyemi’s name but no record of Adebutu, even after the ICT department checked for possible variations of his name.
“The ICT department found the name of the first plaintiff’s candidate fielded as Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi, in the register but could not find the name of the second plaintiff,” he said.
The INEC official further stated that the two flash drives submitted by the PDP alongside its hard-copy membership register did not contain Adebutu’s name or personal details.
He also told the court that the flash drive attached to the PDP affidavit in support of the suit contained different records from those originally submitted to the commission.
According to him, the first flash drive submitted on April 22, 2026, contained files named Ogun 01-038, while the second had files named Ogun 01-04.
He added that the two files contained membership serial numbers ranging from 1 to 18,973 and 1 to 19,308, respectively.
Mohammed also disputed Adebutu’s claim over membership serial number 1536, saying the record submitted to INEC identified the member as Lugboso Sunday Seun.
INEC maintained that it carried out due diligence before publishing the final list of candidates for the election.
The PDP and Adebutu had approached the court after the commission left the governorship candidate’s name off the list, asking the court to compel INEC to recognise his candidacy.
After the parties adopted their final written addresses, Justice Peter Lifu fixed Friday for judgment.
Meanwhile, a Labour Party chieftain, Arabambi Abayomi, has accused Adebutu of allegedly making false claims in the affidavit filed in support of his suit against INEC.
Abayomi, in a statement made available to journalists, alleged that Adebutu falsely claimed ownership of membership serial number 1536, which INEC said belonged to Lugboso Sunday Seun.
He described the allegation as perjury and called on the Attorney-General of the Federation to investigate the matter.
The Labour Party chieftain also urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to investigate what he described as an alleged attempt to influence the outcome of the case.