The All Progressives Congress
(APC) says it will field candidates for all elective positions in Zamfara in
the 2019 general election despite its disqualification by the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Lanre Issa-Onilu, the party’s
national publicity secretary, said this in reaction to the statement of Mahmood
Yakubu, INEC chairman, on the issue.
Yakubu on Monday said the
commission stands by its decision to bar APC from fielding candidates for all
elective positions in Zamfara for failing to conduct primaries within the time
stipulated in the election timetable.
The electoral body had earlier
written to the APC, notifying it of its inability to conduct primaries for the
2019 polls in accordance with the commission’s approved deadline of October 7.
The APC spokesman, however, said:
“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.”
Issa-Onilu also dismissed the
suggestion that the party might sue INEC, saying: “It is not yet something for
the party to take legal action. Nothing calls for that. We would not be
reacting to what INEC said in the public.”
He explained that after the party
got a letter from INEC, it replied but was yet to receive a response from the
commission.
“We are on the side of the law,
we had a primary in Zamfara. We are operating within the guidelines of INEC and
the constitution of the Federal Republic Nigeria,” he said.
“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. 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.”
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