The name of the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan was missing in the final list of contestants jostling for elective positions in the 2023 general elections published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Report had earlier stated that the electoral umpire published the final lists of presidential and National Assembly candidates of the 18 registered political parties in the country.
Godswill Akpabio, former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, made the list as the APC candidate for Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District and Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi made the senatorial list of APC candidate for Ebonyi South.
on Thursday, a Federal High Court in Abuja had ordered INEC to accept and publish Akpabio’s name as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Akwa Ibom North-West District for the 2023 elections.
However, prior to the INEC announcement, Lawan and Bashir Machina has been locked in a long-drawn battle over the ticket of the ruling party for Yobe North which led the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Abdullahi Adamu to warn that Machina risked severe sanctions if he refused to relinquish his ticket to Lawan.
Lawan had contested and lost the APC presidential primaries to a former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He, however, tried unsuccessfully, to reclaim the Yobe North Senatorial District ticket won by Machina. Adamu claimed that the party is supreme and that it reserves the right to decide who gets its ticket in any election.
In the final list published on Tuesday, no candidate was published for Yobe North as the space was blank.
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However, in Akwa Ibom, Akpabio, who also contested and lost the APC presidential primaries, was declared the winner of another primary.
His name was published as the APC candidate for the Akwa Ibom North-West, with INEC remark stating ‘Court Order’.
According to the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Festus Okoye, the commission at its weekly meeting held on Tuesday approved the final list of candidates for national elections (presidential, senatorial and federal constituencies) pursuant to Section 32(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 and item 8 of the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election.
He said, “In terms of gender distribution, 3,875 candidates are male, made up of 35 for presidential and vice presidential; 1,008 for senate and 2,832 for the house of representatives. Similarly, 381 females comprising one for presidential, 92 for senate, and 288 for a house of representatives are contesting. There are also 11 Persons with Disability (PWDs) in the race.”
Okoye said the publication of the full names and addresses of all nominated candidates follows the political parties’ conduct of primaries and completion of the nomination exercise.
He also said that at end of the process, the personal particulars of all nominated candidates were displayed in their constituencies nationwide as provided by Section 29(3) of the Electoral Act.
