2023 ELECTIONS: The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has insisted it has not recognized or accepted the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State and former Minister of Niger Delta Godswill Akpabio and Senate President, Ahmed Lawan as ruling APC senatorial candidates for Akwa Ibom North-west and Yobe North respectively.
The position of INEC was made known on Sunday during a Channels TV programme by the Commission’s spokesman Festus Okoye. The TV program was monitored by a Clariform correspondent.
Basic Facts
- APC risk not having candidates for Yobe North and Akwa Ibom North-west senatorial districts.
- INEC have insisted that the 2022 Electoral Law is the guide to accepting candidates from political parties.
- INEC have insisted on valid party primaries for all the political parties.
- It’s the duty of political parties to submit names of candidates from valid party primaries.
What We Know
After the presidential primaries of the APC, some of the aspirants who lost out in the primaries had sought to obtain their party senatorial ticket for their constituency.
This is particularly the case of Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Godswill Akpabio former governor of Akwa Ibom State and former Minister of the Niger Delta. The APC have submitted these two names in a bid to substitute the winners in the valid primaries that were monitored by INEC.
However, INEC through her spokesman Festus Okoye, said APC risks not having candidates for the two senatorial district if it does not submit names of candidates that emerged from valid primaries. Mr. Okoye said the names of the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, submitted by the party is invalid, except the party follows due process of submitting names.
Till date the APC have failed or refused to follow the INEC guideline by submitting the names of those who emerged through the primaries monitored by the Commission.
The party has also failed to get these individuals to voluntarily resign in other to pave way for a new primary election. The matter is currently a subject of litigation between APC and INEC.
Notable Quotes
Speaking on Channels TV on Sunday, Mr. Festus Okoye said, “The commission has clarified. The commission has made it very clear that under Section 29, subsection one of the Electoral Act, it is the responsibility of a political party to forward to the INEC, the names or the list and personal particulars of their members who emerged from validly conducted party primaries.
“In these two constituencies, two names were forwarded and the commission made a determination that the names forwarded to us and the names are not persons who emerged from validly conducted party primaries and we did not publish their particulars, and that is where we are.”
“So, the commission will not go out of its way and plead with a political party to forward the name of a candidate that emerged from a validly conducted party primaries.”
“If a political party does not forward the name of a candidate that emerged from valid party primaries, the implication is that that particular political party will not have the candidate in the election. For that particular constituency, that is just the law,”
On INEC position on Socio-Economic Rights And Accountability Project (SERAP) that INEC allow Nigerians who did not complete their voter’s card registration to finish the exercise or face a lawsuit, which was reported by Clariform, Mr. Okoye said, “Commission is not scared of the NGO’s legal threats.”
Catch-up
Before now, it was common place for political parties to arbitrarily remove names of candidates from valid primary elections and replace with those who came some distance in the election, and there was nothing INEC could do about it.
The case of Rotimi Amaechi and Celestine Omehia of the PDP in Rivers State readily comes to mind. It took the intervention of the courts for Amaechi to regain his tickets after the elections. Many were not as favoured as Amaechi.
This reign of impunity created a situation where an aspirant would contest multiple positions in the same year and in fact, plant stooge or pseudo aspirants to win primary election, only to step down for the principal after he would have failed in other positions.
Perhaps, this was what Ahmad Lawan and Godswill Akpabio had in mind when they ventured into the presidential race. Perhaps they knew they will eventually settle for the senate.
However, the senatorial primaries was held earlier, winners emerged and in some cases names submitted to the electoral umpire who had monitored the primaries in line with the new electoral law.
Takeaway
Some politicians, particularly the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, former Akwa Ibom Governor, Godswill Akpabio had thought they could make the winners of their party senatorial ticket for their various constituency step down to allow them take the ticket.
This was not to be as Bashir Machina of Yobe North and Udom Ekpoudom of Akwa Ibom North senatorial district refused to relinquish their tickets to allow for the duo of Lawan and Akpabio take their place.
The APC on the other, in what seems to be a sympathy to the Senate President and former minister, but in contrast to the electoral law forwarded the names of Ahmad Lawan and Godswill Akpabio as the senatorial candidates for the two constituencies.
In the past, the party, or any party without respect to what happened at the primaries would have submitted any name they so wished.
However, section 29, subsection 1 of the new electoral law has empowered the INEC to resist the manipulation of the process by party power brokers. This perhaps, has worked in favour of Machina and Ekpoudom, whom the party, in time past would have waved aside as light weights.
Clariform is with INEC on this. It’s high time we insisted that the right things must be done. We at Clariform may not have quarrels with parties substituting their candidates, but it must be done in accordance to the laws. Those who run for multiple positions must be conversant with what the law says on this.
