INEC Versus APC Over Zamfara
The strange altercation that broke out last week between the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] and the All Progressives Congress [APC] over the fielding of candidates for the 2019 elections in Zamfara State was a case of overzealousness mixed with a case of stretching the facts in order to cover up for a botched process. On Monday last week, October 8, INEC wrote a letter to APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole. Titled “Failure To Conduct Party Primaries in Zamfara State Within The Stipulated Time Frame,” the letter was signed by commission’s Acting Secretary Okechukwu Ndeche. It said, “You would note from the timetable that the conduct of party primaries is scheduled to take place between 18th August and 7th October 2018. Kindly also refer to the last schedule communicated by your party to the commission on the dates of party primaries nationwide, including Zamfara vide your letter Ref. APC/NHDQ/ INEC/19/18/51 dated 3rd Oct. 2018. However, report received from our office in Zamfara State shows that no primaries were conducted by your party in the state. Notwithstanding that our officials were fully mobilized and deployed.”
INEC then said based on the provisions 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 candidates from Zamfara State.” This means APC, which governs both at the centre and in Zamfara State, will not field candidates for governorship, National or State Assembly Elections in the state next year.
Oshiomhole immediately replied, saying that APC indeed held governorship, national assembly and state assembly primaries in Zamfara State and will present candidates for the general elections. He said, “We wish to state emphatically that nothing can be farther from the actual situation in Zamfara State.” He attached the report of APC’s Zamfara Electoral Committee, which claimed that the primaries were held between October 6 and 7 at Gusau’s City King Hotel and that the candidates were arrived at by consensus. He also said INEC should have waited until October 17 and 19, the deadlines for submitting lists of party candidates for the presidential/ National Assembly and governorship/state assembly candidates respectively, before raising this matter.
By now everyone knows that APC’s primaries in Zamfara State were the worst in the whole country, no thanks to the do-or-die tactics of both Governor Abdulaziz Yari and his opponents as well as the inept handling of the situation by Oshiomhole and the APC national working committee. Repeated attempts to hold the primaries all failed due to violence, shoddy preparations and the refusal of both sides to submit to a peaceful process. Oshiomhole’s claim that candidates were produced by consensus on the last day allowed for the conduct of primaries were debunked by one of the strongest aspirants in the race, Senator Kabiru Marafa, who said no such thing happened.
INEC was therefore overzealous to write such a letter to APC over its messy Zamfara primaries. Did it write to all the 90 plus other parties, most of whom did not conduct primaries in any state at all? Oshiomhole is right that his party has some days to submit its list of candidates and INEC is bound by the law to accept whatever list it supplies. Aspirants who are not satisfied with it can go to court and could get a ruling even after the elections. Oshiomhole on the other hand, should not make claims that a consensus was reached where none existed. He was probably setting the stage for yet another controversial move in Zamfara State.
INEC was therefore overzealous to write such a letter to APC over its messy Zamfara primaries. Did it write to all the 90 plus other parties, most of whom did not conduct primaries in any state at all?