32-year-old female rep aspirant drags APC to tribunal, says ‘I was cheated’

Mrs Tolu Ebun, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House of Representatives candidate for Shomolu Federal Constituency, has announced her decision to approach the National Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Lagos to challenge the outcome of the election in her constituency.

The 32-year-old said she is confident that with the overwhelming evidence of electoral malpractice and irregularities, ‘the tribunal will restore the mandate freely given to her by the people’.

She contested against Mr. Oyewole Olufemi Diya of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In a press statement by her media team, Ebun noted that, “I was very confident of victory not only because of the nature of the grassroots campaigns we had conducted, but because of the widespread rejection of the APC candidate by residents of the constituency.

“However, the elections were fraught with irregularities, alteration of results and non-compliance with provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act and Operational Handbook issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). In addition, there were several instances of connivance between agents of Mr. Diya/APC and INEC officials/security agents deployed for the conduct of the elections”.

“In spite of these irregularities, INEC declared the APC candidate winner of the elections on March 30th, 2015. This was in stark contrast with the reality that I scored the highest number of valid votes cast by people eligible to vote at the elections”.

She added that, “after due consultation with the people of Shomolu and adequate briefing about my rights from my lawyers, I have decided to approach the National Election Petition Tribunal, Lagos State to restore the mandate freely given to me by my people”.

“At the tribunal, I will present overwhelming evidence of electoral malpractice and irregularities, alteration of results, and non-compliance with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act and the Operational Handbook issued by INEC”.

“My decision to approach the Tribunal is based not only on my desire to protect my rights and interest, but also the desire to protect the rights of the thousands of people who stood in the sun and braved several challenges to vote for me in the belief that I am best suited to promote their interests at the House of Representatives for the next four (4) years”.

“It is my fervent belief that the judiciary, as the last hope of the common man, will resolve the legal issues connected to this matter and protect the mandate freely given to me by the people of Shomolu,” she said