Politics
FCT Polls: INEC Publishes List Of Candidates
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released the final list of 478 candidates nominated for the FCT Area Council election.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, in a statement issued in Abuja, said the commission met on Thursday and deliberated on a number of issues.
Okoye said the issues included the conduct of the area council election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) scheduled for February12, 2022.
Okoye said eight out of the 14 activities listed for the election had been carried out, including the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates for the election.
“Consequently, the Commission has approved the final list of 478 candidates nominated by 14 political parties to contest for 68 constituencies, made up of 110 candidates as Chairmen and Vice Chairmen for the six Area Councils and 363 candidates for 62 councillorship positions.
“The detailed list of the names, gender, age, academic qualification and disability (if any) of the candidates has been published in the Commission’s FCT office.
“This has also been uploaded on our website and social media platforms, in compliance with the requirement of Section 34 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) and for public information,” Okoye said.
The Tide source reports that the summary of the list shows that 55 candidates including three females were nominated for the chairmanship election and one female vice chairman, for the six area councils in FCT.
Also, 363 (made up of 332 male and 31 females) were nominated as candidates for councillorship election in the six area councils.
The Tide reports that for the Abaji Area Council, seven political parties including the APC and PDP nominated candidates for chairmanship election, who are all men.
Also four political parties- ADC, APC, PDP and SDP nominated 40 candidates for the available 10 councilor seats in the area council.
For Abuja Municipal Area Council, 14 political parties including AA, APC, DPD, SDP and YPP nominated candidates for the election, with only one female nominated by NRM and five others nominated for vice chairmanship position.
The list also shows that 98 candidates comprising of 15 females and 83 males were nominated for the 12 councilorship seats in AMAC.
The list also shows that 11 political parties nominated candidates including two females for Bwari chairmanship election.
The list released by INEC also shows that 71 candidates were nominated for 10 councillorship election in the council, with only six of them as female.
For Gwagwalada Area Council, nine political parties nominated candidates, all male, for the chairmanship election and one female for vice chairman.
The list also indicates that 59 candidates including six females would be contesting the 10 councilorship election in Gwagwalada Area Council.
The commission also published list of six candidates, with no female, nominated by six parties for Kuje Area Council election.
Also published was the personal particulars of 44 candidates, with four females nominated by parties for the 10 councilorship seats in Kuje Area Council.
NAN also reports that nine political parties nominated candidates, all men, for Kwali Area Council chairmanship election.
The commission also published list of 51 councilorship candidates, including one female, for the area council.
The list indicated that the ADC, APC, PDP and SDP nominated candidates for all the seats to be contested for in the election
Mr Ojukwu, who recently returned to the interim National Working Committee led by Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, noted that the party had 34 elected members in the House of Representatives, eight Senators, and 80 members at the state Houses of Assembly after the 2023 general elections.
“Now we lost all of them,” he said. “I don’t think we have as many as five members in the National Assembly.”
The former national officer of the LP talked to journalists in Abuja and said he chose to join the caretaker committee led by Senator Nenadi-Usman because they are now the officially recognized leaders of the Party.
“I chose to work with the caretaker committee to help save the Labour Party, for the benefit of the party. I also want to use this chance to ask my colleagues at the national, state, and local government levels to come together and help rebuild our party.
“Another election is around the corner. We lost everything we have. They have left to other political parties. So I’ll reach out to all my friends in the other group to get together and work on making this party stronger again.
“The caretaker committee has formed a reconciliation committee. Let’s come together and talk so that we can restore the first opposition political party in Nigeria.”
Mr Ojukwu, who was part of the Julius Abure’s group, said there are no more factions in the LP.
He added, “There is a court ruling, and since it is valid, the right people are in the correct positions.”
He urged Barr Abure and others to drop the legal cases they have filed because they are not helping the party.
“Litigations are killing political parties”, he said. “They’ve seen many political parties disappear because of legal battles, and the Labor Party is losing support every day, which makes me feel sad.”
Mr Ojukwu said he did not think joining the Senator Nenadi-Usman’s NWC was a betrayal of the Abure group, describing himself as “the oxygen” of that faction.
“I’m with this group because of the verdict. But I never betrayed anybody. Rather, I was betrayed,” he added.
