INEC: Why We Accepted List of APC Candidates from Rivers

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that it collected the list of candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State because there was no court order or judgment barring it from doing so.

The Supreme Court had on October 22, 2018, descended on the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal for granting an application in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in respect of the conduct of the party’s congresses in the state.

A five-man panel of the Supreme Court, in its unanimous judgment, held that the Court of Appeal committed “a sacrilegious exercise of discretion” by favouring the APC in its June 21, 2018, judgment despite the party’s decision to conduct its congresses in Rivers State in disobedience of subsisting orders of the court.

The Supreme Court faulted the action of the APC, and described the conduct of the party’s ward, local government and state congresses of May 19, 20 and 21, 2018, respectively, in Rivers State, in violation of a pending court order as “condemnable, egregious and preposterous.”

The five-man panel of the apex court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, upheld the appeal filed against the APC by 23 aggrieved members of the party in Rivers State.

But while speaking with THISDAY on the phone yesterday, INEC National Commissioner on Voter Education and Publicity, Festus Okoye, said as at the time APC submitted the list, INEC has not been served any court order or any judgment barring the party from submitting the list.

According to him, “The APC conducted party primary in the state and the party primary election was monitored by INEC, and at the end of the day, the National Chairman of APC and the National Secretary forwarded the list of candidates that emerged from the primary election to INEC, and INEC collected the list as submitted by the national chairman and secretary of the APC.”

Okoye added that “on the date of submission of the list, there was no order from any court of law served on INEC to the effect that the electoral body should not collect the list of candidates from Rivers State.”

He said what INEC has done is what the law says in terms of political party submitting the list of their candidates.

Okoye stressed that in the next few days, INEC would publish the list of candidates for governorship and state House of Assembly elections in the various constituencies in accordance with the law.

He stated: “When the affidavit is published in all their constituencies, any individual or group that has issues has the constitutional right to go to court to challenge issues arising from the primaries.”

However, the electoral body has once again rejected the list of candidates from Ogun State submitted to it by the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while acknowledging that of the state chapter of the party loyal to Senator Buruji Kasamu.

Though the electoral body had in a letter written to the party on October 25, 2018, and received on October 30, 2018, notified the PDP of its decision to publish the lists of candidates submitted by the Adebayo Dayo-led State Executive Committee of Ogun State PDP in pursuant to the orders until it is set aside.