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The opposition
Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has faulted the
inclusion of the former secretary to the Delta State government,Ovie
Omo-Agege as a candidate in the forthcoming re-run governorship
election in the state.

The group said Mr
Omo-Agege was never a candidate in the April 14, 2007 election which
was recently annulled by the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin City, Edo
State and should therefore not run.

The CNPP also said
it would be illegal for Mr Omo-Agege to contest the re-run elections on
the platform of the Republican Party of Nigeria (RPN), adding that the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) erred in law by
supervising the primary election organised by the party where the
governorship candidate emerged.

“We frowned at
INEC’s supervision of the illegal Republican Party primary election,
when electoral officials are aware that the position of the extant laws
of the land and the landmark decision of the Supreme Court in the
Labour Party vs INEC, is that only those nominated lawfully for a
nullified election are fit and proper persons to contest the re-run
election,” the opposition group said, in a statement by its spokesman,
Osita Okechukwu.

“When a court
makes a pronouncement that a thing that took place is null and void,
the simple and reasonable interpretation of such is that the thing
never occurred or took place. The court is, by implication, ordering
that the whole exercise must start a fresh with the same dramatis
personae participating “Omo-Agege, did not participate in the April 14
2007 governorship election in Delta State. He was a chieftain of the
Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} and participated in the governorship
primaries of the PDP and came distance third.”

A test case

The CNPP said it
suspects foul play in the inclusion of Mr Omo-Agege as a candidate,
saying it could be aimed at frustrating the performance of candidates
of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and the Action Congress of
Nigeria(ACN).

“It is our
considered view that Ovie Omo-Agege is being planted as a spoiler meant
to halt the hurricane of the DPP/ACN which is sweeping PDP out of the
Western region. Otherwise, how can INEC, an institution created by the
constitution, violate the Electoral Act, the Constitution and disregard
and disobey a subsisting Supreme Court landmark judgment?” it said.

While asking INEC
chairman, Attahiru Jega to investigate the INEC officials who allegedly
simulated the illegality, the CNPP said the Delta State governorship
re-run election would not only be a litmus test for the commission but
also an appetizer for its new leadership.