By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that two political parties, the African Action Congress (AAC) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), are yet to upload a single nomination of their candidates for Governorship, Deputy Governorship and State Assembly elections on the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal (ICNP).
This bombshell was dropped in Abuja on Wednesday by INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Barrister Festus Okoye through a statement made available to journalists in Abuja.
The statement said the Commission has processed 6,995 Nomination Forms (EC9) uploaded by 16 out of 18 political parties for the constituencies where they intend to sponsor candidates.
It also explained that the Commission has continuously responded to requests for the issuance of Certified True Copies (CTCs) of documents mainly arising from the conduct of party congresses, primaries and nomination of candidates.
The statement read in parts: “The number of requests processed has now risen to one million, six hundred and sixty-two thousand, nine hundred and eighty seven (1,662,987) pages of documents. Sadly, in spite of the Commission’s effort, 147 out of 476 requests processed as at today involving 5,646 pages are yet to be collected by applicants”.
Okoye therefore reminds all political parties that they have three days left to upload their list of candidates to the ICNP. The deadline is Friday 15th July 2022.
The portal will automatically shut down at 6.00pm on that date. He appealed to prospective litigants to come forward and collect the certifed copies of the documents.
He stressed that as provided for in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election released by the Commission on 26th February 2022, all political parties that conducted valid primaries are required to nominate their candidates for Governorship, Deputy Governorship and State Assembly elections via the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal (ICNP) from 1st – 15th July 2022.
