APC won’t participate in Zamfara elections – INEC chairman insists

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC Chairman, Mahmoud Yakubu, has insisted, that the All Progressives Congress, APC, will not field candidates for the 2019 general elections in Zamfara state.



Yakubu stated this on the sideline of the opening of a two-day validation workshop entitled “Study on the cost of elections in ECOWAS Region.” which held in Abuja yesterday October 15th.

“We have issued a statement on Zamfara and nothing has changed. We stand by the statement that we issued,” he said.

The electoral commission in a letter to APC, said the party was barred from fielding candidates for governorship, National Assembly and state assembly elections because it failed to comply with Sections 87 and 31 of the Electoral Act of 2010.

Parties, according to the act, were expected to comply with the timetable and schedule of INEC, which says the conduct of primaries must be held between August 18 and October 7. INEC said it received reports from its Zamfara office, indicating that no primaries were conducted in the state “notwithstanding that our officials were fully mobilised and deployed.”

APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, in reacting to the claim, said there was no truth to INEC’s statement.

Oshiomole insisted that the party organised primaries in Zamfara within the stipulated time, candidates emerged and they would be fielded in the 2019 election. Oshiomole added that the claim by INEC that no primaries were conducted could only be referring to its officials’ observation that actual voting did not take place.