2023: Lawan, Machina’s names missing, as INEC releases final list of candidates

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released the final list of candidates contesting for the presidency in the 2023 general elections.

This is according to a circular released by the electoral body on Tuesday in Abuja.

The INEC circular also include the names of presidential, senatorial and House of Representatives’ candidates, their states of origin, ages, qualifications, and other details, as well as that of their running mates.

“In summary, all the 18 political parties have fielded candidates and their running mates for the Presidential election. For legislative elections, 1,101 candidates are vying for 109 Senatorial seats and 3,122 candidates for Federal Constituencies i.e. House of Representatives seats, making a total of 4,223 candidates contesting for 469 legislative positions,” the circular reads.

“In terms of gender distribution, 3,875 candidates are male, made up of 35 for Presidential and Vice Presidential, 1,008 for Senate and 2,832 for House of Representatives. Similarly, 381 females comprising 1 for Presidential, 92 for Senate, and 288 for House of Representatives are contesting. There are also 11 Persons with Disability (PWDs) in the race.”

Among those cleared for the presidency by the electoral umpire are Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC); Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).

Meanwhile, the senatorial aspiration of Senate President Ahmed Lawan may have hit the rock as his name was conspicuously missing from the list of senatorial candidates.

The name of the winner of the senatorial primary election for the Senate President’s district, Yobe North, Bashir Machina is also missing on the list.

However, Godswill Akpabio, former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs made the final list as the APC candidate for Akwa Ibom North-West.

Bashir Machina won the party’s ticket for Yobe North Senatorial District, while Udom Ekpoudom won the primary for Akwa Ibom North-West which was monitored by electoral officials.

In Yobe, a certified true copy of the commission’s report from the May 28, 2022, election revealed Machina polled 289 votes out of 300 delegates.

The document was certified by the electoral office on June 23, 2022.

In Akwa Ibom, Akpabio was declared the winner of another primary, but Mike Igini, resident electoral commissioner (REC) of Akwa Ibom, had said the exercise which produced the former minister as a candidate wasn’t monitored by the commission.

The Section 31 of the Electoral Act only allows for substitution when a candidate dies or when he or she withdraws from the race and informs INEC in writing.

The section reads: “A candidate may withdraw his or her candidature by notice in writing signed by him and delivered personally by the candidate to the political party that nominated him for the election and the political party shall convey such withdrawal to the commission not later than 90 days to the election.”

Rather than submit the name of the elected candidates, that of Lawan and Akpabio were submitted to the commission by the ruling APC, a move that led to the deliberate omission of their names from the published particulars of candidates late June.

To clarify the brewing controversy around the seat, INEC, on at least two different occasions, said it rejected the senate president’s name because he had not been validly nominated for the senatorial seat.

The commission, however, urged the duo to resolve their issues internally or seek redress in court.

On September 15, a Federal High Court in Abuja ordered INEC to accept and publish the name of Akpabio as the APC candidate for his senatorial district.

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