The headache of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara remains if the comments of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, is anything to go by.
INEC had pointedly told the ruling party last week that it would not accept candidates for governorship and National Assembly elections from Zamfara APC because no primary elections were conducted there.
Yakubu told journalists in Abuja on Monday, “We have issued a statement on Zamfara; nothing has changed.”
Going by INEC timetable, parties are expected to submit the list of their candidates by Wednesday; and except a court rules otherwise, the APC will not have candidates for governorship and National Assembly elections for Zamfara, next year.
In response, APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu said the party is ready with the list of its candidates for all positions for Zamfara State for submission before the October 18, 2018 deadline.
His words: “INEC cannot say that we don’t have candidates for election until the deadline has expired. We have options of consensus, direct and indirect primaries and we are going to apply, like we have done in other states, our energies, time and concerns to pick our candidates.”
“I can assure you that before the October 18 deadline, we are going to meet all INEC requirements and we are going to submit names of all the candidates for not only Zamfara but the 36 states and the FCT”.
“We believe that INEC does not have the correct information on what happened in Zamfara and this we have stated in our letter to the commission.
On whetherINEC had replied Oshiomhole’s letter, he said; “They haven’t replied our letter, we also ask INEC that if they need more information from us, that we will be ready to offer it.”
Everyday.ng reports that INEC acting secretary, Okechukwe Ndeche, in a letter to the APC last week said the party is barred from fielding candidates for governorship, national assembly and state assembly elections, as it failed to comply with Sections 87 and 31 of the Electoral Act of 2010.
But the party fired back in a letter by its National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, that the position of INEC is untenable because primaries were conducted there and consensus candidates emerged.
Acting secretary of INEC, Okechukwu Ndeche wrote: “You would note that from the timetable the conduct of primaries is scheduled to take place between August 18 to Oct 7 2018.
“However, report received from our office in Zamfara state shows that no primaries were conducted by your party in Zamfara, notwithstanding that our officials were fully mobilised and deployed.
“Consequently, based on the provision of Section 87 and 31 of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, the commission does not expect that your party will submit names of any candidate from Zamfara state.
“For clarity, our position therefore, is that the APC will not be fielding candidates for the Governorship, National Assembly and State Assembly elections in Zamfara for the 2019 general elections”.
In his response Oshiomole’s said: “The contents of your said letter seem to conclude that no primaries were conducted by the APC in Zamfara State. We wish to state emphatically that nothing can be farther from the actual situation in Zamfara State,” he wrote.
“Kindly find a comprehensive report from the Zamfara Electoral Committee of the All Progressives Congress and signed by all the members on the conduct of primary elections for the Zamfara State held between 6th & 7th October, 2018. The summary of the report, as you will find, is that following the high level of friction, disagreements and threatened violence by various political camps before the primaries, all the aspirants met at City King Hotel, Gusau, to find a truce.
“After hours of intense horse-trading, a consensus was reached within the spirit and context of the Electoral Act and the constitution of our party on the basis of which a list was produced which was confirmed/affirmed by all delegates present. This was done in strict compliance with section 87 (6) of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as Amended).
“Therefore, the claim in your letter under reference that ‘no primaries were conducted by your party in the state, notwithstanding that our officials were fully mobilized and deployed’ could only be referring to their observation that actual voting did not take place, which is not the only mode prescribed for producing candidates in the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended). We, therefore, affirm that indeed primaries took place in Zamfara
Please also refer to the INEC’s Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2019 General Elections released by the Commission on the 9’” January, 2018. By that timetable all political parties are expected to submit a list of their candidates on or before 18th of October, 2018, after exhausting all internal procedures for Appeals arising out of the congresses…
“As a party, we are in the process of exhausting those internal procedures before forwarding the names of our candidates to you. We are perplexed that you did not wait for us to submit the names of our candidates in Zamfara State (considering that the time within which such submission should take place has not elapsed) before raising your observation in your letter under reference.
“This is more so when we received no correspondence from the Commission at least to inquire from our party the true state of affairs in Zamfara State, in the spirit of fair hearing, before making haste to write your letter. We, however note that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not also hold primaries in Kano, but no such similar letter was written to the PDP in relation to Kano State.
“It is our contention, in the circumstance, that your letter is not only preemptive, but your position seem to negate the spirit of any fair hearing and is devoid of legal basis.
“BE INFORMED, that in the spirit of due compliance with the law, we affirm that we shall indeed be presenting candidates for Governorship, National Assembly and State Assembly Elections in Zamfara State for the 2019 General elections before the deadline for submission of such names which has been fixed by your Commission on the 18th of October, 2018.
“If you raise further observations AFTER you receive our list of candidates, we shall be glad to clarify them.”