Senatorial Poll: How INEC, Labour Party’s Negligence May Favour Tinubu

Negligence on the part of both the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Labour Party may enhance the chances of the former Lagos State first lady and Action Congress of Nigeria candidate for Lagos Central, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu in the senatorial election, which held Saturday. Facts available to THISDAY showed that LP, which has Mr. Dapo Durosimi-Etti as its candidate for Lagos Central, was unable to secure INEC’s acknowledgment after submitting his senate form, a situation generally considered an act of negligence. Even if the election had held penultimate weekend, THISDAY gathered that it still would not have featured the LP because Durosimi-Etti was not duly recognised by INEC and his form did not bear INEC’s stamp of acknowledgment. THISDAY learnt that when all the political parties that had problems after the botched elections on April 2 met with the INEC leadership in Abuja, LP was unable to defend the case of Durosimi-Etti, making INEC helpless in the circumstance. But the party was said to have put up strong defence in the cases of Ifako-Ijaiye, Somolu and Ikorodu federal constituencies, a development the electoral body has also addressed by suspending elections in those areas. LP supporters had thronged the polling booths Saturday to cast their votes only to discover that their party was not the ballot paper. This was said to have created bitterness among the voters, who alleged that there was a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise them. A woman, who called THISDAY and introduced herself as wife of the LP candidate, Mrs. Yemi Durosimi-Etti, complained that supporters of her husband, who she said were more than 80 per cent of the total number of persons that came out to vote, were denied their right to vote because their party of choice was not on the ballot paper. Mrs. Durosimi-Etti claimed to have called from Victoria Garden City, in Lagos, where she lives with her husband. She said the most annoying part of the whole saga was that when they approached the INEC officials to find out why LP was not on the ballot paper, none of the INEC officials could give any concrete reason. By Olawale Olaleye Courtesy Of: This Day Live