2023: INEC Omits APC Candidates From Senatorial Election List

By Tosin Olatokunbo

The All Progressives’ Congress, APC has no candidates for three senatorial districts in next year election, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The ruling party is likely to suffer for wrong substitution of candidates, after submitting the names of Ahmad Lawan, Godswill Akpabio and Governor Dave Umahi, as senatorial candidates for their respective senatorial districts in Yobe, Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi.

The three APC stalwarts did not participate in the primaries conducted by the party and were not validly elected.

Those that won the elections include Udom Ekpoudom, Bashir Sheriff Machina and Austin Umahi, the younger brother of Governor Umahi who willingly stepped down for him after securing the senatorial ticket in Ebonyi state.  

But INEC has refused to include the names of Lawan, Akpabio and Umahi in the list it published on Friday, on the basis that they were not validly nominated for the positions, as they did not participate in their party’s primary supervised by the electoral body.

Recall that the three politicians were aspirants in the APC presidential primaries. They failed to participate in senatorial primaries in their respective states.

After they failed to secure the presidential ticket, the Abdullahi Adamu-led APC tried to smuggle their names in through the back door as the party’s senatorial candidates.

Speaking on the issue on Friday, Festus Okoye, INEC’s National Commissioner for Information and Voters Education said Lawan, Umahi and Akpabio did not emerge from valid party primaries conducted by the APC.

Since the candidates did not participate in the primaries, INEC said it has no obligations to publish their names, as doing so will contradict the Electoral Act. Any aggrieved candidate, it said can go to court for redress.

According to him, “If a political party submits to the Independent National Electoral Commission the name of a candidate that did not emerge from party primaries or did not emerge from valid party primaries, the commission is not obligated to publish the name of such a candidate.

“The final list of validly nominated candidates will be published by the Independent National Electoral Commission on the 20th day of September, 2022. And that is for presidential and National Assembly candidates.

“What the commission has published, as of today, complies with Section 29(3) of the Electoral Act which says that the moment political parties comply with the provision of Section 29 (1) of the Electoral Act in terms of the submission of its validly nominated candidates, that the commission shall publish the personal particulars of such candidates in the constituencies where the candidates intend to contest election.

“In other words, for instance, for a senatorial candidate, if a senatorial district covers four local governments, we will publish the personal particulars of such a candidate in the four local governments.

“That is exactly what we have done. And we published the personal particulars of candidates that emerged from valid party primaries. And that is what the law says we should do.

“So, if the name of any candidate was not published or if the personal particulars of any candidate were not published today, the implication is that such a candidate did not emerge from valid party primaries.”