Seventeen political parties met the deadline to nominate candidates for the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State.
Ahead of the governorship poll, the Independent National Electoral Commission said it would publish the particulars of the 17 candidates and their running mates on March 30, 2024.
The state governorship election is scheduled to be held on September 21, 2024.
The particulars of the candidates would be published by displaying copies of Form EC9 along with all academic credentials and other documents submitted by each candidate at the State Headquarters and the 18 Local Government offices across the state.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, stated this on Wednesday.
Olumekun said, “Following the conclusion of party primaries, 17 political parties have uploaded their candidates’ nomination forms for the Edo State Governorship Election by the deadline of 6pm on March 24, 2024 when the dedicated portal automatically shut down.
“The personal particulars of the governorship candidates and their running mates will be published on Saturday, March 30, 2024, a week from the last date for the submission of nominations as provided in Section 29(3) of the Electoral Act 2022.
“The commission shall publish the personal particulars by displaying copies of Form EC9 along with all academic credentials and other documents submitted by each candidate at the State Headquaters and the 18 Local Government offices across Edo State.”
The commission appealed to Nigerians to scrutinise the document (particulars of the candidates) when published.
“We appeal to Nigerians to scrutinise the documents. Any aspirant who participated in his/her party primaries with reasonable grounds to believe that the information provided by the candidate is false can challenge the nomination in a Federal High Court as provided in Section 29(5) of the Electoral Act 2022,” the National Commissioner said.
The INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, had last week expressed the frustration of the electoral body over the rancorous primary elections in various political parties ahead of the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo.
Yakubu, who spoke in Abuja at the first regular quarterly consultative meeting with political parties, said INEC found the infighting within political parties disruptive of its activities, adding that INEC also wastes funds to defend litigation arising from controversial primaries.
The governorship primaries conducted by the three frontline political parties, the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party; and Labour Party, were rancorous.
The APC had to conduct a second primary after the first one threw up three ‘winners’.
For the PDP, there were two parallel primaries; while a similar situation played out in the Labour Party.
The representative of Edo Central Senatorial District, Senator Monday Okpebholo, was declared the winner of the Edo State APC fresh primary election.
Also, the former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olumide Akpata, won the governorship primary of the Edo State LP as the candidate for the party in the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
Asue Ighodalo emerged as the PDP candidate for the upcoming Edo poll.