The electoral umpire said Adebutu’s name was not on the register of the PDP.
It told the court that it found only the name of the PDP’s deputy governorship candidate in the state, Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi, in the register.
INEC’s counter-affidavit was in opposition to a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2573/2026, which the PDP and its Ogun State governorship candidate, Adebutu, filed against it.
While the PDP is the 1st plaintiff in the matter, Adebutu is listed as the 2nd plaintiff, with INEC named as the sole defendant.
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Recall that INEC had omitted Adebutu’s name from the final list of 13 candidates cleared to contest the Ogun State governorship election billed for February 6, 2027.
Dissatisfied with the action, the PDP approached the court for an order compelling INEC to reverse its decision by recognising Adebutu’s candidacy.
However, in the process it filed to challenge the competence of the suit, INEC said it had done due diligence before the final list of candidates for the election was published.
According to the deponent, “I know as a fact that before the Governorship Candidates Final List was published, the ICT department conducted a search on the membership register submitted by the 1st plaintiff and during the search, the ICT department found the name of the 1st plaintiff’s candidate fielded as Deputy Governor of Ogun State (Kolapo Lateefat Oyeyemi) in the register but could not find the name of the 2nd plaintiff.
“The search was also conducted to find a possible match for the name of the 2nd plaintiff, but no possible match was found in the Ogun State membership register.
“That I know as a fact that all the queries conducted on the membership register in the flash drives (PDF/read only) submitted to the defendant by the 1st plaintiff do not contain the name of the 2nd plaintiff.
“That the flash drive attached to the plaintiff’s affidavit and further affidavit in support of the Originating Summons was shown to me and I have carefully examined it, and I state that the contents of the flash drive are not the same as those submitted to the defendant.
“That the first flash drive submitted by the 1st plaintiff to the defendant on 22 April 2026 had files named Ogun 01-038, while the second flash drive submitted to the defendant had files named Ogun 01-04, with serial numbers of members 1–18,973 and 1–19,308 respectively.
“That serial number 1536 on the membership register submitted by the 1st plaintiff to the defendant contains the name of one Lugboso Sunday Seun and not the name of the 2nd plaintiff,” INEC’s witness further averred.
It told the court that two flash drives were submitted to it alongside the hard-copy membership register, and neither contained the name and particulars of the 2nd plaintiff, Adebutu.
Following the adoption of final addresses by the parties, Justice Peter Lifu fixed Friday for judgment.
