National chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Senator Abdullahi Adamu yesterday was evasive over why the party submitted the name of the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, and Godwill Akpabio to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The names of Lawan and Akpabio were submitted to INEC despite the mounting opposition that they did not participate in the APC senatorial primaries.
But speaking to State House correspondents on the sidelines at the Presidential Villa after presenting the Ekiti State governor-elect to President Muhammadu Buhari, the following conversation ensued between Adamu and State House correspondents:
Reporter: Nigerians are wondering that the Senate president didn’t take part in the primary, but there was a report that his name was sent to INEC by the party?
Adamu: Don’t get yourself into the court of law. Is it that you were told or they are saying it?
Reporter: But you are leading the party?
Adamu: I don’t have time for negativities, I don’t just have time for that. If you face me with positives, I have time for all of that. I will stand here and answer all of your questions.
Reporter: But is it true?
Lawan, Akpabio Make APC List Of Senatorial Candidates
Adamu: I cannot respond to every speculation particularly when they are negative. Especially, when they are mischief-makers.
Reporter: Do you know why I am asking you this question? We saw him participate in the presidential primaries and lost, and all of a sudden, a senatorial primary election was held in his absence?
Adamu: Is there any law that says when you contest an election and lose, you shouldn’t contest another one?
Reporter: But did he contest in the senatorial primary election?
Adamu: Go and find out from the person who is responsible for organising the primary. I have done my beat. I think that in my honor that he did participate within the timeline.
Space/Placeholder As VP Alien To Nigerian Constitution, Legal Framework – INEC
Meanwhile, INEC has said the concept of “space or placeholder” for vice presidential candidates has no place in the nation’s constitutional and legal framework.
Following the completion of presidential primaries of political parties, INEC set June 17, 2022, as the deadline for the nomination of vice presidential candidates for the 2023 general elections.
However, to beat the deadline, some parties submitted names of vice presidential candidates who they described as placeholders.
Also, there has been an uneasy calm in the polity following the failure of the commission to announce the names of the nominated candidates for the polls.
LEADERSHIP reports that APC submitted Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as presidential candidate and Kabiru Masari as placeholder, pending the end of his search for a suitable running mate.
In PDP, the party submitted former vice president Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate and Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate.
The Labour Party (LP) named former presidential spokesman Dr Doyin Okupe as vice presidential candidate to Peter Obi, the party’s presidential standard-bearer.
Okupe said he is holding the position in trust for the rightful owner.
But, reacting to this trend during an appearance on Arise TV yesterday, INEC’s national commissioner of Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, said the “issue of space or place holder is a unique Nigerian invention that has no place in our constitutional and legal framework.”
Okoye said the running mate’s “placeholder” could only be substituted via a letter to the commission, attaching an affidavit.
He said, “The law says that as a presidential candidate, you must nominate an associate to run with you and as far as the Independent National Electoral Commission is concerned, the presidential candidates have submitted their associates to run with them in the presidential election.
“As far as we are concerned, there’s no form submitted by the presidential candidate where they said ‘we’re submitting this person’s name as a space or placeholder.
“Politically parties’ candidates have submitted names of associates to run with them and that is the position of the law as of today and nothing has changed.
“For there to be a substitution of candidates, the vice presidential candidate must write to INEC, with a sworn affidavit stating that he is withdrawing from the race within the time frame provided by the law. That’s the only way there can be a substitution of candidates.”
On how the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, could extricate himself from his current political bind and chart his way back to the Senate in 2023, Okoye said Lawan or any individual in his position was left at the mercy of the candidates who had been legally and constitutionally nominated by their political parties.
He also denied that he has come across the names of candidates submitted by political parties.
Reports had earlier confirmed that APC in Yobe North Senatorial District replaced the name of Bashir Machina with that of Lawan.
While Senator Lawan was battling for the APC presidential ticket, Machina participated as a sole aspirant, won with 289 votes and was declared winner of the Yobe North Senatorial District primary election.
Okoye said the commission monitored and had the reports of all the senatorial and House of Representatives primary elections, adding that properly nominated candidates must write to INEC with an affidavit, asking for a fresh primary, which would be conducted within 14 days before a replacement can be made.
He further advised Machina and others whose mandates have been taken from them to approach a well-constituted court of law to seek redress since INEC already had the reports from the primary election.
“I completely agree with you that someone who has not contested a party’s primary should not be in a position to be nominated as the party’s candidate,” Okoye said.
“But now the Independent National Electoral Commission is not in a position as at now to make a determination in relation to what you’re saying or to make a determination in relation to whose name was submitted by a political party.
“The commission monitored the primaries of different political parties. Their senatorial and House of Representatives primaries and we have our reports. So if somebody emerged from the party primary and someone else’s name was submitted, it is the duty of that particular individual to utilise Section 285 of the Constitution, Section 84 and 29 of the Electoral Act to seek redress in a constituted court of law.”
“Moreover, what the law provides is that at the end of this nomination process, if any of the candidates that have been properly and constitutional nominated withdraws in writing and sworn affidavit that the ‘political party that nominated me must and shall conduct fresh primaries within the period of 14 days and then make such replacement.’
“Then the person must do this through a letter submitted to the political party that nominated him with an affidavit indicating that he or she has voluntarily withdrawn. So that is the state of the law as of today.”
Also, reviewing Ekiti State governorship elections on Channels TV, Okoye said the commission is ready to cooperate with all agencies of government to break the cycle of impunity relating to electoral malfeasance.
“Now, the commission has gone before the National Assembly to make a case for the establishment of an electoral offensive commission and tribunal to take care of the arrest, investigation, and prosecution of electoral offenders to enable the commission to concentrate fully on organizing undertaken and supervising the election.
“Section 145 of the Electoral Act gives the commission the power to prosecute electoral offenders, but it is a completely different organ, different agents and different arm of government.”
He added that the commission will continue to build on the successes it has recorded and will continue to add value to the electoral process.
“We ask for patience and the understanding of the Nigerian people,” he said.
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