The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) does not have senatorial candidates for both Yobe north and Akwa Ibom north-west districts ahead of the 2023 elections.
INEC spokesperson, Festus Okoye, stated this on Sunday during an interview on Channels Television.
In June, the electoral body had excluded the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan and a former Minister of Niger Delta affairs, Godswill Akpabio, from the list of candidates contesting to represent Yobe north and Akwa Ibom north-west districts, respectively.
Meanwhile, APC had submitted Lawan and Akpabio as senatorial candidates, despite the controversy that surrounded the primaries involving the two men in their respective districts.
Speaking on the development, Okoye revealed INEC has decided to exclude Akpabio and Lawan from the candidates’ list, because they did not emerge from validly-conducted primaries.
“If a political party does not forward the name of the candidate that emerged from a validly-conducted primary, the implication is that the political party will not have the candidate in the election for that particular constituency and that is just the law.
“Their (referring to Lawan and Akpabio) names were uploaded by the APC to our candidates’ nomination portal, but the commission made a determination that they were not the candidates that emerged from valid party primaries.
“The commission did not publish their names and their particulars in their constituencies. So, the implication is that as of today, the APC does not have candidates in those two constituencies,” Okoye said.
