A Delta State All Progressives Congress, APC, senatorial candidate for Delta South, Mr. Temisanren Omatseye, has dragged the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to court, over alleged plot to recognise Prince Yemi Emiko as winner of party’s primaries held on December 8, 2014.

Meanwhile, the Temisan Omatseye Campaign Organisation has called on APC national leadership to declare Omatseye as the winner of the primaries and announce his name as the senatorial candidate of the party for next month’s polls.

Abdullahi Yusuf, Media Assistant / Strategy, Temisan Omatseye Campaign Organisation in a statement, yesterday, said: “The primaries were conducted in a peaceful environment until an attempt was made to disrupt the process. At the end of that, the police and other security agents present were able to secure the ballot papers and all electoral materials including the accreditation papers used in conducting the elections.

“In addition, members who conducted the poll were taken safely by the police to the Oleh Police station, where it was decided that the election ballot papers be counted in the presence of the INEC officials, the electoral panel, the electoral body, the police and the Department of State Security. After the count, it was thereafter declared in the collated scores that Prince Omatseye had 424 votes; Prince Emiko pooled 181 votes while Dr. Austin Urette had 18 votes.

“It, therefore, is a surprise to the organisation, the electorate and Prince Omatseye, the aspirant, that a so-called panel headed by one Osita Okechukwu, presented a totally different result from the actual and legitimate result of the primary election.

“It is also surprising to us that the party has accepted these false results, and we have been made to understand and reliably believe that the name of Prince Emiko, who did not win the primaries, and who pooled votes far less than Prince Omatseye, had been forwarded to INEC by the party.

“We wish to inform the general public and most especially, INEC, that any attempt to recognise Prince Emiko as the duly elected candidate for the APC Delta South senatorial district is illegal, null and void and of no effect, as it is clear, unquestionably and evidently so, that the winner of the APC Delta South senatorial district primary election remains Omatseye.”