The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has announced that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has no Candidate for Yobe North and Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial Districts, in the 2023 general elections, Page 36 learnt.
Recall, that the Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan, who represents Yobe North, had made several headlines for allegedly intimidating the authentic winner of the primary election, Bashir Machina, in a nonstop battle to get the party’s ticket for 2023, after losing the APC Presidential primary election.
On the other hand, Godswill Akpabio who recently resigned as the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and also lost in the APC Presidential primary election, is in a tussle to get the ruling party’s ticket to run for the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial seat in 2023.
Reacting however, on the confusion, INEC National Commissioner, Festus Okoye, stated clearly that the Electoral body does not recognise any APC Candidate for both Senatorial zones.
He said exactly on Channels Television’s ‘Sunday Politics’: “In these two Constituencies, two names were forwarded and the Commission made a determination that the names were not persons who emerged from a validly conducted party primaries, and we did not publish their names. That is where we are.
“Their (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.”
More news later…
