No Candidates For APC In Zamfara, INEC Insists


The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has insisted on its earlier decision to bar the ruling All Progressives Congress APC from fielding candidates for state and federal elections in Zamfara state.

The commission which had earlier said it would release the final list of governorship and state assembly candidates on Thursday however stated this late Wednesday in a statement by Festus Okoye, one of its National Commissioners and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee. The statement reads: “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) met today, 30th January 2019 and among other things approved the final list of candidates for the Governorship State Assembly and FCT Area Council elections scheduled to hold on 2nd March 2019. On the whole, there are 1, 066 candidates for the Governorship elections, 14, 583 for the State Assembly elections and 806 for the FCT Area Council elections broken down into 105 Chairmanship candidates and 701 Councillorship candidates. “The Commission reviewed the situation concerning the All Progressives Congress (APC) fielding candidates for the Governorship and State Assembly elections in Zamfara State. Commission noted that there are two court judgements on the matter one from a State High Court in Gusau and the other from a Federal High Court in Abuja. The former judgement clearly said that the APC conducted primaries in Zamfara State, contrary to the position of the Commission. On the other hand, the Federal High Court in Abuja ruled that the party did not conduct valid primaries and therefore is ineligible to field candidates for the elections.

The Commission would like to reaffirm its commitment to obeying all court judgements, even when it disagrees with them. However, these are clearly two contradictory judgements delivered by two courts of coordinate jurisdiction on the same day. “Consequently, the Commission has decided to maintain its original position that the party in question did not conduct primaries and therefore, in line with Section 87 of the Electoral Act 20l0 (as amended), is not eligible to field candidates for the National Assembly, Governorship and State Assembly elections in Zamfara State. “Commission also reviewed various aspects of its preparedness for the 20l9 general elections and expressed satisfaction with the overall preparations for the elections. A meeting with all the Resident Electoral Commissioners will take place next week to further review the state of preparedness of each State”, INEC stated.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Army Holds Private Burial For 100 Soldiers Killed By Boko Haram

Image
The Nigerian Army has organised a private burial for over 100 officers and soldiers killed during terrorist attacks on Nigerian Army 157 Task Force Battalion last month, The PUNCH has learnt. Our correspondent was told by one of the widows of the officers that the burial would take place in Maiduguri on Friday. It was, however, learnt that the army wanted the event to be private so that the real number of slain soldiers will not be known. One of the widows who did not wish to be identified said, “I was invited for the burial of my husband with a few others this Friday in Maiduguri. “Sincerely, we don’t even know how many will be buried and the army is not giving us any information.” A colonel, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said the army decided to make the burial private in order to hide the true casualty figure. He said, “Gen Buratai said only 23 soldiers were killed in the attack. He also put the number of troops wounded in action at 31. How...
Read more

Rep Members Who Will Not Return To The House In 2019 (see List)

Image
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, at least 50 per cent of the 360 House of Representatives members of the eighth assembly will not return to the ninth assembly next year. A review by News men show that many of these lawmakers either lost the primary elections that were recently concluded or have moved to seek different elective positions. Below are some of the House members who are certainly not returning in 2019 for various reasons. ABIA In Abia, the member representing Bende federal constituency, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, is not returning to the house as she did not clinch the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election. Unlike many of her colleagues, she did not seek to contest on a different platform. ADAMAWA Three out of the eight House of Representatives members from the state are not coming back. Out of the three, two lost the APC primary while the third contested for the Senate but failed to clinch the ticket. The two lawmakers who lost...
Read more