HOW INEC REMOVED THE NAMES OF BOTH SENATOR AHMED LAWAN AND SENATOR GODSWILL AKPABIO DURING THE 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS BUT THEY LATER CONTESTED AND WON.
By Mr. Deme Ataribo Ayawari
According to Professor Ibaba S. Ibaba, illiteracy is one of the major dilemma/setbacks of true democratic practice in Africa.
In view of the above assertion, my heart bleeds for members of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) who are ignorantly celebrating the temporary removal of Chief Timipre Sylva's name from the INEC list. I am also flabbergasted over some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for being seemingly demoralized because of the said development. It is a pity that some Africans have not fully understood what they practice.
The temporary removal of Chief Sylva's name in the INEC list for the Bayelsa State Governorship election is a mere exercise of the Rule of Law. Hence, it will not stop Chief Timipre Sylva from contesting and winning the November 11 Governorship election in the State. It is interesting to note that the same scenario played out in the case of the former and the serving Senate President Ahmed Lawan and Senator Godswill Akpabio who all won their elections after facing similar obstacles.
Lawan’s fate, for instance, was uncertain during the 2023 general election as INEC failed to list APC candidates for Yobe North Senatorial District. The names of Messrs Lawan and Machina were missing on the list apparently due to the then pending legal tussle over who the real candidate was.
The participation of the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan in the 2023 general elections was therefore uncertain as his name was not on the list of validly-nominated senatorial candidates as released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Also missing from the said list was Bashir Machina, the acclaimed winner of the APC Primary Election in Yobe North Senatorial District, a seat which Senator Lawan was also contending for.
INEC had on September, 2022 released the final list of the Presidential candidates and their running mates as well as the Senatorial and House of Representatives candidates. INEC was believed to have left the names of Messrs Lawan and Machina out of the list because of the subsisting court case over who is the actual candidate of the APC in the district. It was the second time the Commission had done so. It did not list any of the two names in June,2022 when it released the first list.
Engrossed in his pursuit of the 2023 Presidential ticket of the ruling APC, Senator Lawan could not participate in the Senatorial Primary held in his District at the time. It happened that Senator Ahmed Lawan who contested for the APC Presidential primaries but lost his bid to former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, who flew the party’s flag in the 25 February presidential election later turned around and contested and won the Yobe North Senatorial District to the surprise of many.
Mr. Machina, a former member of the House of Representatives, won the primary which was supervised by INEC officials, but Senate Lawan's name was however forwarded by the APC leadership to the INEC.
While the APC leadership has continued to push the interest of Senator Lawan, the electoral body, on at least three different occasions, said it would not recognise him unless the court ruled otherwise. The court finally ruled in favour of Senator Lawan who eventually contested and won the election to the astonishment of many. In a similar development, former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, also made the list in the same way, having been eventually cleared by a court on the matter.
The Federal High Court in Abuja ordered INEC to recognise the former minister as the candidate of the APC for the Akwa Ibom North-West District for the 2023 elections. In its ruling, the court faulted the commission’s claim that it refused to accept and publish Mr. Akpabio’s name because it monitored only the primary poll conducted by the APC on 9th June, 2022 in which Mr. Akpabio did not participate. INEC had maintained that no primary was conducted on the 27th of May, 2022 when the Former Governor claimed he won.
Notwithstanding the above, INEC later shortlisted Akpabio's name for the 2023 general election which he eventually contested and
won.
The above is a good example of how Chief Timipre Sylva will also win the forthcoming Governorship election in Bayelsa State in spite of the temporary removal of his name from the list by INEC.
VICTORY FOR SYLVA!
AND DEVELOPMENT FOR BAYELSA STATE!
From: Deme Ataribo Ayawari, APC Leader, Ovom Town, Yenagoa Local Government Area, Bayelsa State.
