Says no fresh candidates in 69 re-run elections By Omeiza Ajayi ABUJA—The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has barred the All Progressives
Congress, APC, from presenting Mrs. Sharon
Ikeazor in the forthcoming Senate re-run elections. The exclusion of Ikeazor is in line with the directive
of the commission barring political parties from
bringing in new candidates in 69 scheduled court
ordered re-run elections whose dates were
announced by the commission yesterday. This was disclosed in a statement issued in Abuja
yesterday and signed by the commission’s
secretary, Augusta Ogakwu. INEC said it took the decision following Monday’s
consultations with major stakeholders in the
electoral process as well as in the public interest. The affected states are Gombe, Adamawa, Kaduna,
Plateau, Niger, Benue, Nasarawa and Kogi. Others
are Taraba, Imo, Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Akwa
Ibom, Cross River and Rivers. That of Gombe has,
however, been conducted since January 27. The
exercise in the various states would now take place from February 13 to March 19, 2016. In adherence to the rulings of the various courts in
some of the cases, INEC said some political parties
and their candidates have been excluded from the
race. It also said that only those parties and
candidates who participated in the annulled polls
would be eligible to take part in the forthcoming rerun. “Consequent upon the judgment of the court, the
commission will conduct the elections in 69 of the
said constituencies with the same political parties
and their respective candidates who participated in
the annulled elections,” INEC said. With this development, INEC said in the case of
Anambra Central Senatorial rerun, the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate in the
election, Sen. Uche Ekwunife are excluded.
Ekwunife has since defected to the All Progressives
Congress, APC, while the then candidate of the APC in the annulled election, Sen. Chris Ngige is now a
minister of the federal republic. APC had recently
conducted a fresh primary that threw up Mrs.
Ikeazor as the party’s candidate for the election. In Kogi State, the APC has also been excluded from
the senatorial rerun in both the Central and Eastern
districts. Both Senators Abdulsalami Mohammed
Ohiare and Abdulrahman Abubakar of the APC
would not take part in the rerun, despite having
recently orchestrated the conduct of fresh primary elections by the APC which again threw them up as
winners. The situation is no different in the case of the
Okene/Ogori-Magongo federal constituency of Kogi
State where the APC and its candidate, Hon.
Abdullahi Bello have been excluded from the race,
thus clearing the coast for his major challenger,
Tijani Damisa of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/02/inec-bars-apcs-ikeazor-in-anambra-central-election-re-run/

Its a clear coast for Chief Victor Umeh in Anambra state.

Hmmm arms crossed