PDP Lagos guber: Obanikoro accuses Bode George, Agbaje of manipulating primary

Former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Oban­ikoro, has told a Federal High Court sit­ting in Abuja of how a leader of the Peoples Dem­ocratic Party (PDP) in La­gos State, Chief Olabode George, and the governor­ship candidate of the party in the state, Mr. Jimi Ag­baje, allegedly recruited armed thugs to manipu­late the governorship pri­mary of the party held on December 8.

The aggrieved politician, who was challenging the out­come of the primary alleged that electoral irregularities such as over-voting, intimida­tion of his delegates by thugs loyal to George and Agbaje as well as improper accredita­tion of delegates marred the process.
His words: “I also saw the police recovered five guns and rounds of ammunition and live cartridges from the thugs brought by Chief Ola­bode George and Mr. Jimi Agbaje, a co-aspirant.”
Obanikoro with 343 votes came second behind Ag­baje who polled 432 votes to clinch the party’s ticket.
But the former minister failed to convince the court through an ex-parte applica­tion to stop the PDP from ac­cepting the name of Agbaje for submission to the Indepen­dent National Electoral Com­mission (INEC) as its gover­norship candidate for the 2015 elections.
Rather, after listening to counsel to Obanikoro, Justice Ahmed Mohammed asked the PDP and the INEC to ap­pear in court on December 23.
He directed the two defen­dants in the suit to appear in court to show cause why the court should not make an or­der of interim injunction re­straining them from present­ing or accepting any name as the PDP governorship candi­date in Lagos State pending the determination of the suit.