Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has insisted that it would field candidates for all positions in Zamfara State in the 2019 general elections despite the disqualification by the INEC.
Reacting to the insistence by the INEC’s chairman that the Commission stood by its decision to bar it from nominating any candidate in Zamfara State, the party said it would go ahead to submit list of candidates.
New National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, told newsmen that the party would meet all requirements for the submission of candidates from Zamfara State.
Commenting specifically on Zamfara State, the spokesman said, “INEC cannot say that we don’t have candidates for election until the deadline has expired.
“We have options of consensus, direct and indirect primaries and we are going to apply like we have done in other states, our energies, time and concerns to pick our candidates.
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“I can assure you that before the October 18 deadline, we are going to meet all INEC requirements and we are going to submit names of all the candidates for not only Zamfara State but for all the 36 states and the FCT,” he insisted.
The party’s spokesman also dismissed the suggestion that APC might sue the INEC, stressing that, “It is not yet something for the party to take legal action. Nothing calls for that. We would not be reacting to what INEC said in the public”.
He explained that after the party got a letter from the INEC, it replied it but was yet to receive a reply from the commission.
Issa-Onilu continued, “We are on the side of the law, we had a primary in Zamfara State. We are operating within the guidelines of INEC and the constitution of the Federal Republic Nigeria.
“We believe that INEC does not have the correct information on what happened in Zamfara and this we have stated in our letter to the commission.
“They haven’t replied our letter so we take that the matter remained as it is. We also ask INEC that if they need more information from us, that we will be ready to offer it,” he noted.
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He maintained that APC regards INEC as an umpire adding that it is only other parties in coming elections that need to complain about how its candidates emerged.
“As an umpire you don’t give the result of a game that is ongoing. We still have up till October 18th to submit list of candidates for the election,” he said.