The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has told the Federal High Court in Abuja that the name of the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate in Ogun State, Ladi Adebutu, was missing from the party’s membership register submitted to the commission.
INEC disclosed this in a counter-affidavit filed in response to a suit by the PDP and Adebutu, seeking an order compelling the commission to recognise him as the party’s candidate for the February 6, 2027, governorship election.
The counter-affidavit was deposed to by Mustapha Mohammed, a Chief Programme Analyst in INEC’s Information and Communication Technology Department.
Mohammed said the commission searched the membership register submitted by the PDP before publishing its final list of candidates but could only find the name of the party’s deputy governorship candidate, Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi.
He said several searches were conducted to establish whether Adebutu’s name appeared in the register, including possible variations of his name, but no matching record was found.
The INEC official also told the court that two flash drives submitted by the PDP alongside its hard-copy membership register did not contain Adebutu’s name or personal details.
He further disputed Adebutu’s claim that he was listed as member number 1536, saying the register submitted to the commission identified the person with that serial number as Lugboso Sunday Seun.
INEC maintained that it carried out due diligence before publishing the final list of candidates for the Ogun governorship election.
Adebutu and the PDP approached the court after the commission excluded the former from its list of 13 candidates cleared to contest the election.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2573/2026, seeks to compel INEC to reverse the omission and recognise Adebutu as the PDP candidate.
Following the adoption of final written addresses by the parties, Justice Peter Lifu fixed Friday for judgment.
Meanwhile, a Labour Party chieftain, Arabambi Abayomi, accused Adebutu of making false claims in his court affidavit over the disputed membership serial number.
Abayomi called on the Attorney-General of the Federation to investigate the allegation and urged judicial authorities to examine what he described as an attempt to influence the outcome of the case.
