Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), has claimed that Senate President Ahmad Lawan used a loophole in the Electoral Act 2022 to ‘impose himself’ on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2023 elections.
On Thursday, Sowore condemned Lawan’s election as the candidate for the Yobe North Senatorial District “in an election in which he never participated in the primary.”
Sowore said;
I had a chance to tell Nigerian lawmakers the lacuna in the Electoral Act that got the Senate President, Lawan declared a candidate in an election where he did not contest the primary.
Accompanying the tweet with a video recorded while speaking at a National Assembly public hearing on the Electoral Act 2022, Sowore said;
I also seriously think that the Electoral Act has some lacuna that is being exploited by the judiciary. We are all aware that even though the portal for electoral process has been closed, courts are still giving conflicting judgements regarding candidates in this election, including candidates that did not even participate in the primary that have been imposed on INEC as we speak. One of them is your (Senate) President here.
An Electoral Act that also empowers INEC to be a major decision-maker for political parties is not a democratic Electoral Act. I also want to say that the Senate should look directly into how to curb INEC’s power to deregister parties because that does not promote democracy at all.
WITHIN NIGERIA reports that the Supreme Court confirmed Lawan as the genuine All Progressives Congress senatorial candidate for Yobe North on Monday.
The Supreme Court granted the APC’s appeal against Bashir Machina’s candidacy.
The court declared Lawan the winner of the Yobe North senatorial candidacy over Machina, who won the poll on May 29.