Thursday, 20 May 2021: The All Progressives Congress, (APC), in Oyo State has dragged the state Governor, Seyi Makinde, to court over its exclusion from the local government election scheduled for Saturday.

Also joined in the suit is the state’s Independent Electoral Commission, the Caretaker Chairman of APC in the state, Chief Akin Oke, confirmed in a statement in Ibadan.

Oke said the party, through its lawyers, had prepared and forwarded the originating processes to the state’s Chief Judge.

The local government election is holding on Saturday without the APC participating.

CEOAFRICA recalls that Governor Makinde sacked all the 33 LG chairmen and 35 Local Council Development Areas chairmen elected on the platform of the APC shortly after he was sworn in 2019.

He was elected on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party.

That development became a subject of a protracted litigation, which went all the way to the Supreme Court, until the apex court on May 7, 2021 finally declared the dissolution as illegal.

But the electoral commission had already fixed May 22 for the conduct of local government election even before the determination of the Supreme Court case and commenced electoral processes in which the APC could not participate.

The party asked for an extension and shift in the date for the council poll so that it could also take part, but the electoral commission has not granted that request.

Chief Oke expressed the hope that the case would be attended to timely.

He said: “Governor Makinde and OYSIEC are planning to go ahead with the conduct of the local government elections slated for this Saturday (May 22) without the APC and other registered political parties.

“This action is a waste of the state’s resources. The action is aimed at making mockery of democracy and the rule of law.”

The APC chairman said the party’s exclusion was deliberate and unconstitutional, arguing that OYSIEC erred by commencing electoral processes for the poll while there was a pending litigation.

He also faulted OYSIEC for imposing a nomination form fee of N250,000 and N100,000 on chairmanship and councillorship aspirants respectively, describing the fees as illegal.

“These fees are illegal because election processes cannot be monetised. The OYSIEC having realised this illegal imposition of fees have now decided to refund the candidates, but not after OYSIEC had closed every avenue for participation in the electoral processes,” he said.

Oke said the party is aware that some Magistrate Courts in the state are sitting over criminal matters considered urgent in spite of the ongoing strike by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria.