•INEC to clarify omitted candidate’s status this week
By Henry Umoru, John Alechenu, Luminous Jannamike & Emma Una
ABUJA – The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has met the Independent National Electoral Commission’s, INEC, October 24 deadline for correcting the names of candidates omitted from its published list, the party’s National Organising Secretary, Captain Umar Bature, retd, has said.
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The party’s governorship candidates in Ogun(Oladipupo Adebutu), and Gombe(Prof Isa Pantanmi) and seven House of Assembly candidates were omitted in the list published by the electoral umpire, recently.
Apart from the PDP, other opposition parties such as the Social Democratic Party, SDP; Nigeria democratic Congress, NDC; African Democratic Congress, ADC; and Action Democratic Party, ADP; and Labour Party, LP, were also affected. The INEC gave the affected parties October 24 as deadline to correct the omissions.
The affected candidates include governorship hopefuls in Gombe and Ogun states, as well as about six or seven House of Assembly candidates, whose names were missing from the list released by the electoral commission.
Bature confirmed the development, yesterday, in a response to Vanguard, saying the PDP completed the corrections within the stipulated period.
“Yes, we met the deadline since,” he said.
NDC, ADP meet INEC deadline on omitted candidates
Also, the National Leadership of the NDC said it met the INEC’s deadline for correcting the names of candidates omitted from the published list.
When Vanguard sought to know if the party has met the deadline, the NDC National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director simply said, “ Yes, we did.”
Similarly, the National leadership of the ADP said it met the deadline.
Speaking with Vanguard yesterday, the National Chairman of the ADP, Engr. Yabagi Yusuf Sani,said, “we did. Thanks a lot.”
LP in good standing with INEC — Asogwa
in like manner, the National Publicity Secretary of the LP, Ken Asogwa, said the party is in good standing with the INEC on correction of names and replacement of candidates.
His words: “The Labour Party is in good standing with INEC, including on matters relating to the correction of names and replacement of candidates,” adding that the party is confident and looks forward to a successful outing for all its candidates in the forthcoming general elections.
INEC’s clarification awaited
The electoral umpire has not released additional information on the status of the omitted candidates especially those NDC’s John Upan and Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo of ADC in Cross River State
Ambassador Toyo told Vanguard that she had done all that was needed to be done before the deadline expired but INEC is yet to bring out the result.
“They gave us the deadline of October 24 which was Saturday and I had done all that they asked for but they have not brought out any information. Let’s wait for them”
Contacted, the Head, INEC Voter Education in Cross River , Mr Osaro Aisen, said: “The whole thing is handled from Abuja and it is a legal matter. Let’s see what will come forth tomorrow (Monday).
“I cannot give you a categorical answer now till tomorrow.”
