Zamfara: INEC removes 10 APC candidates from list

[File] From left: Zamfara State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Bello Dankande; Chairman of Gusau Local Government, Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko; and other APC supporters during a protest against the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, at the party’s secretariat in Gusau, Zamfara State...on Thursday. Photo: NAN

 Zamfara: INEC removes 10 APC candidates from list

Eniola Akinkuotu, Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission has released the final list of candidates and political parties that will take part in next month’s federal legislative elections.

The All Progressives Congress was, however, omitted from the list of parties that will partake in the elections.

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This implies that the three senatorial seats and seven House of Representatives seats which are currently being occupied by the APC, will be lost come February.

INEC had in October disqualified the APC from participating in all elections – except the Presidential poll – for failing to conduct primaries.

INEC said the decision was hinged on the fact that the APC failed to conduct primaries for National Assembly, governorship and state assembly elections, adding that the October 7, 2018 deadline had lapsed.

The Zamfara APC had been engulfed in a serious crisis in recent time as parallel primaries had been held by factions of the party, none of which was monitored by INEC.

The two persons at the centre of the crisis are Governor Abdulaziz Yari, who is also a senatorial aspirant, and Senator Kabiru Marafa, who is a governorship aspirant.

While Yari wanted his Commissioner for Finance, Mukhtar Idris, to succeed him, Marafa insisted that there must be a level playing field. This led to the conduct of parallel primaries across the state which produced different candidates.

The National Working Committee led by Adams Oshiomhole subsequently suspended the state executive of the party to allow for a rancour-free exercise, a decision which did not go down well with Yari.

However, the electoral panel sent to the state by the party’s national leadership announced that it was unable to organise primaries in the state.