Contrary to the news making rounds on social media that the senate president and the former Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Ahmed Lawan and Senator Godswill Akpabio, have been recognized by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the commission has come out to deny such claim.
The statement was contained in press release titled, ‘Spurious Allegations in Respect of Nomination of Candidates in Some Senatorial Districts’, issued by the commission noting that it had not recognised them.
Both Lawan and Akpabio had contested the APC Presidential primaries but after losing, both of them were listed as senatorial candidates by the APC, but INEC refused to recognise them.
In the statement signed by INEC National Commissioner, Festus Okoye, the commission said the matter was still in court and it would maintain the status quo.
“For the record, the commission has not recognised any of the two personalities as a senatorial candidate.
“We call for responsible reportage as against the unwarranted attack on the commission and its officials over a matter than can be easily fact-checked,” the statement read.
The commission said a certified true copy of Form 9C was uploaded by the APC and received by the Commission on June 17, 2022 when the nomination portal closed was presented.
It explained that the Form EC9 submission of names of candidates by political parties is the form uploaded by parties on the INEC nomination portal.
“The forms of the two personalities in question were not published by the commission. The decision of the commission triggered legal actions which are still ongoing. It therefore defies logic and common sense to go around and submit doctored documents purportedly recognising the duo as candidates when the matter is clearly sub-judice,” it said.
