The New Nigerian Peoples Party on Thursday accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of refusing to replace candidates who defected from the party to other platforms.
The party lamented that despite orders of the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court in Abuja directing INEC to accept the names of fresh candidates submitted to it to replace those that withdrew their candidature and resigned from the party, the commission has refused to obey the order, one month to the elections.
The NNPP candidates who left the party but were yet to be replaced by INEC include a former Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano Central Senatorial District), Ibrahim Mikra (Taraba South Senatorial District), Yobe State Deputy governorship candidate of the party, Yahaya Gamaje and Mohammed Maikifi (Potiskum Central House of Assembly)
Shekarau’s name had appeared on the INEC final list as NNPP’s senatorial candidate for Kano Central Senatorial District, despite his defection from the party on August 29.
The National Publicity Secretary of NNPP, Major Agbo, accused INEC of playing partisan politics unbecoming of an electoral umpire for not accepting the candidates submitted to it on September 1, 2022, after an earlier one on August 30, 2022.
“We are aware of a grand plot to deliberately sabotage NNPP and deprive our great party the opportunity to field candidates for these critical positions,” he said.
Agbo urged the commission to be mindful of its actions and reactions so as not to derail the electoral process.
