{"id":97893,"date":"2022-08-10T10:27:55","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T09:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=97893"},"modified":"2022-08-10T10:27:55","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T09:27:55","slug":"2023-weve-not-recognized-lawan-akpabio-as-senatorial-candidates-inec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/2023-weve-not-recognized-lawan-akpabio-as-senatorial-candidates-inec\/","title":{"rendered":"2023: We&#8217;ve Not Recognized Lawan, Akpabio As Senatorial Candidates- INEC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied doctoring and backdating documents to accommodate the nominations of Ahmad Lawan and Godswill Akpabio as senatorial candidates for the 2023 general elections.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">INEC also said it is yet to recognise \u201cany of the two personalities as a Senatorial candidate.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sen. Lawan, who is the current Senate President and Mr Akpabio had both contested in the All Progressives Congress presidential primaries, which was won by Bola Ahmed Tinubu.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Both have however chosen to pick up Senate tickets for Yobe North and Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial Districts respectively, sparking controversy over the legality of such a move since most Senate primaries had already been conducted before the presidential primaries.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">INEC, in a statement signed by National Commissioner Festus Okoye said the matter is still in court.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe Forms of the two personalities in question were not published by the Commission,\u201d INEC said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe decision of the Commission triggered legal action which are still ongoing.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The statement reads: \u2018\u2019Not for the first time, our attention has been drawn to a story published by an online medium that the Commission has doctored, backdated and certified documents to accommodate the nominations emanating from Yobe North and Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial Districts in respect of Senators Ahmed Lawan and Godswill Akpabio. Nothing can be further from the truth.\u2019\u2019<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018\u2019As evidence of the alleged role played by the Commission, a certified true copy of Form 9C uploaded by their political party and received by the Commission on 17th June 2022 when the nomination portal closed was presented.\u2019\u2019<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018\u2019For clarity, the Form EC9 (submission of names of candidates by political parties) is the Form uploaded by parties on the INEC nomination portal. This is clearly indicated on the title of the Form which was received on 17th June 2022 when the portal closed, \u2018\u2019the statement said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018\u2019What follows is the publication of the personal particulars of nominated candidates which was done a week later. The Forms of the two personalities in question were not published by the Commission. The decision of the Commission triggered legal action 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.\u2019\u2019<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018\u2019As part of the ongoing case in Court, a law firm requested the Commission for a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Form EC9 submitted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) as its candidate for Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District which we are duty bound to oblige them under the law. The Form was certified on 15th July 2022. If minimum care has been exercised by the promoters of the story, they would have seen the two stamps of the Commission bearing different dates on the Form. It is this Form that is now misconstrued as INEC\u2019 s endorsement.\u2019\u2019<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018\u2019For the record, the Commission has not recognised any of the two personalities as a Senatorial candidate.\u2019\u2019<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"m_-9080545107195944976yMail_cursorElementTracker_1660121186184\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018\u2019We call for responsible reportage as against the unwarranted attack on the Commission and its officials over a matter than can be easily fact checked.\u2019\u2019<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied doctoring and backdating documents to accommodate the nominations of Ahmad Lawan and Godswill Akpabio as senatorial candidates for the 2023 general elections.&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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