The Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its governorship candidate in the November 11, 2023, election in Kogi State have urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disregard the call by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Kogi State government to halt the inspection of materials used for the election. SDP asserted that the request for cancellation of the inspection exercise by the APC and Kogi is baseless and cannot override the court’s order for the inspection.
The statement from SDP’s Governorship Campaign Council Spokesperson, Faruk Adejoh-Audu, described the request from APC and Kogi as a desperate ploy to hinder the judicial review process. The party alleged that the Kogi State government had previously deployed political thugs dressed in SDP T-shirts to the INEC office to demand the cancellation of the court-ordered inspection exercise.
SDP claimed that, to prevent the destruction of election materials by sponsored thugs, the materials used for the state elections had to be taken to Abuja. The party accused the Kogi State government of attempting to discredit the judicial review of the November 11, 2023, governorship election and delay the legal process.
The call for the inspection cancellation had come from Kingsley Fanwo, the Kogi State Commissioner for Information, who argued that the exercise would give undue advantage to the opposition party in the ongoing legal battle over the election.
