INEC Includes Zamfara APC Candidates On The Ballot

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Friday says it will include the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara on the ballot.

National Commissioner and Chairman, Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, said in a statement.

The governor of Zamfara state Abdelaziz Yari, last week warned INEC that the forthcoming general elections may not hold in the state if names of the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidates are not on the ballot.

“There is no way elections will be conducted in Zamfara State without APC candidates, he threatened during a rally.

The governor said it will be a huge mistake and threat to national security for INEC to bar Zamfara APC candidates from contesting during the forthcoming general elections in the state.

An APC Senator from Zamfara state, representing Zamfara Central Senatorial District, Senator Kabir Marafa, has backed INEC’s earlier stand that his party the APC has no candidates in the forthcoming elections.

” Asking INEC to recognise the list of candidates presented to it from Zamfara State by the APC is just like a call on somebody to kill themselves, he said.

Marafa in an interview said that Governor of Zamfara State, Abdul’aziz Yari, broke all known rules to call for the continuation of an election that was cancelled by a body constituted legally to conduct the poll. The constitution of the APC is very clear as to where the power to conduct the primaries resides, Marafa said.

” Our great political party fixed dates and on October 3, 2018, the panel arrived in Gusau, Zamfara State to conduct the primaries but unfortunately the exercise was marred by violence that led to the death of six people while many people were severely injured. As a result of the violence, the chairman of the election panel, Professor Abu Fari, announced to the whole world that primaries had been cancelled and they left Gusau and returned to Abuja. But the governor called on people to continue with the exercise. Some of us, who are enlightened politicians, knew that it was an exercise in futility. He went ahead, conducted his own exercise and said he collated results.

” Governor Abdul’aziz Yari is supposed to be prosecuted for treason because what his faction did amounts to treason, said Senator Marafa

Credit: PSN