DPP DENIES MISSING INEC DEADLINE ON CANDIDATES' LIST

THE Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) governorship candidate for Delta State, Great Ovedje Ogboru, has faulted claims by some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that the party did not beat the deadline for the submission of its candidates' list for the April general elections.

In a reaction to INEC's declaration, Ogboru said the party met all the requirements to be eligible for the election and submitted its documents to the INEC office before the deadline.

Ogboru said the stories flying around that the party did not meet the guidelines and deadline were all lies concocted to misinform the party's supporters and stop its campaign train already in motion.

Also, DPP's governorship candidate in Kwara State, Mr. Gbenga Olawepo, has refuted the same report that the party did not meet the deadline set by INEC for the submission of party candidates' list.

In a statement, Olawepo said: 'This information is false and is the handiwork of the enemies of democracy working closely with some bad eggs in INEC headquarters, who need to be flushed out if the reforms promised by its Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, will have any impact.

'Our attention has been drawn to information and reports making the rounds that the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) did not make the list of parties that submitted the list of candidates for the 2011 general elections'.

Ogboru's spokesman, Mr. Efe Duku, told The Guardian in Lagos that the party complied with all INEC directives and was at the commission's headquarters by 3:30 p.m. against the closing time of 6.00 p.m. on January 31, 2011.

'We were shocked to hear the next day that we did not meet the deadline and immediately lodged a written complain stating our stand'.

According to him, 'the party's representative, Alhaji Shehu Abdullah, who came with the documents was given Tag 4 by the screening committee leader of Team 'C' and the nomination forms submitted by the party were checked and verified by the committee. The legal department cleared the party and gave it a clean bill of health'.

The Delta State DPP Chairman, Tony Ezeagwu, also denied the media reports that it failed to submit the list of its candidate for the forthcoming elections.

Ezeagwu told The Guardian that the publication was a deliberate attempt to misinform the people of the state so that the party's candidates will not be voted for.

He said the party had resolved to field candidates from the governorship to the state House and National Assemblies in all the constituencies in the state.