The
All Progressives Congress, APC, has sued the Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC, seeking an order to allow its candidates to
participate in the forthcoming general elections in Zamfara State. In
the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, the party further
applied for an order of perpetual injunction to restrain INEC from
giving effect to the content of a letter with Reg. No.
lNEC/SEC/654/1/330 and dated October 9, which foreclosed it from
presenting candidates in Zamfara for failing to conduct its primaries
within the stipulated time. The court has fixed December 11 to
commence hearing on the matter. Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu okayed the case
for hearing on Friday after she joined the governorship aspirant of APC
in the state, Senator Garba Marafa and a senatorial aspirant, Alhaji
Siraju, as well as seven other chieftains of the party, as defendants in
the suit. APC, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1279/2018, prayed the
court to declare that INEC’s letter purporting to exclude the party from
presenting and submitting the list of its candidates for the
forthcoming election in Zamfara state scheduled for 2019, is null, void,
ultra vires and of no effect having regards to the provisions of
sections 31(1) and 86(2), (3) and (4) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as
amended). “A declaration that by virtue of section 36(1) of the 1999
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and section
31(1) of the Electoral Act (as amended), the defendant lacks the power
to refuse to collect the name of the plaintiff’s candidates for Zamfara
state presented and to be submitted to it not later than 60 days before
the election scheduled for February 2019″.
