Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate for the March 9, 2019, Kwara State gubernatorial election, Hon. Razaq Atunwa, at last, have challenged the victory of his rival, Alhaji AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, before the Election Tribunal, sitting in Ilorin, the state capital.
While Atunwa is of PDP, AbdulRazaq is of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the two parties that hotly went into the elections in the state.
There had been a disquiet from the PDP since governorship and House of Assembly elections when it lost all the positions contested for by its candidates.
Atunwa as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) polled 114,754 votes that made him to lose to AbdulRazaq, who polled 331,546 votes.
The Nigerian Xpress sources was told that both Atunwa and PDP were challenging the qualification of AbdulRazaq to contest the March 9, 2019 governorship election.
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INEC is the first Respondent in the petition, which argues that the governor-elect was, at the time of the election, not qualified to contest.
The petition also alleged that the governor-elect submitted to INEC an affidavit containing false information of a fundamental nature in aid of his qualification for the said election.
Atunwa and the PDP averred in the petition that the election of AbdulRazaq was invalid by reasons of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.
The tribunal has also received one State House of Assembly petition filed by Jimoh Raheem Agboola of the PDP, challenging the qualification of the APC state Assembly member-elect for Ilorin South constituency, Sulaiman Shehu Abdulsalam.
No date has been fixed yet for hearing in the matter to commence.
