The Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC ) has finally admitted Zamfara state All Progressive Congress (APC) candidates into the 2019 general election.
This follows the Court of Appeal ruling on Thursday that the electoral commission should accept candidates of the party.
The state APC was barred from presenting candidates owing to an internal crisis, which did not allow the party to conduct its primaries within the time frame set by INEC.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday said it will include the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State on the ballot.
The electoral body announced this in a statement by its National Commissioner and Chairman, Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye.
INEC had in October 2018 barred APC in Zamfara to field in candidates for the elections over failure to conduct credible primary elections.
The verdict of INEC was afterwards greeted with legal actions from the APC. A state court upheld INEC’s decision to bar the ruling party from participating in the election.A State High Court in Zamfara overruled INEC’s decision, stating that the party could participate in the election.
The case was later taken to a State Court of Appeal which ruled yesterday, Thursday, February 21 that APC candidates would contest in the 2019 general elections.
Senator Kabiru Marafa, one of the major actors in the protracted crisis in the Zamfara All Progressives Congress over the primaries held in the state, has accepted, in the interim, Thursday’s verdict of the Court of Appeal.
But he said he would file an appeal at the Sokoto division of the court of appeal, while also giving his supporters conflicting signals on who to vote for in Saturday’s election. He asked his supporters to vote for President Buhari, but ‘vote according to conscience for other candidates”.
The verdict by the Appeal Court in Abuja paved the way for the party to contest all elections, beginning tomorrow with the National Assembly election. President Buhari is the party’s candidate for the presidential election, also taking place same day.
In a reaction to the verdict of the court, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday said it had decided to relist the party’s candidates in the state for elections on account of the court’s ruling.
“This is what Allah has decided and destined, we have accepted it,” Marafa said in a statement.
“We tried our best but Allah knows the wisdom behind this. I have said it, that whatever comes out from the court, we will open our hands and accept it as Allah’s will. What we are fighting is injustice and nothing personal.
“I’m appealing to my teeming supporters to be law abiding and shun anything that would cause confusion and breach of public peace.
“Please come out massively to vote for President Buhari. And for other elections vote for the candidates that will protect you and your properties in senatorial and House of Representatives elections. Vote according to your conscience.
“We have already filed an appeal at the Sokoto division of the appeal court. It will come up soon. We will pursue it to its logical conclusion.
“I sincerely thank all the good people within and outside the state that supported us in standing up to the tyrannical tendencies of Gov Yari and his backers.”
