The New Nigeria Peoples Party and it’s governorship candidate in Kaduna state, Sen. Suleiman Hunkuyi, are set to drag Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to Appeal Court for listing Sen. Uba Sani among candidates for the 2023 general elections.
Reacting to Tuesday’s Federal High Court ruling in Kaduna, which declared its suit against INEC over the listing of the All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate for Kaduna state, Sen. Uba Sani and 34 other APC candidates for the 2023 general elections, statute barred, for coming more than 14 days after the APC primaries, Hunkuyi said the judgment was in error, adding that they would appeal the suit as soon as they receive a copy of the judgment.
Addressing the media in Kaduna on Wednesday November 23, 2022, alongside the party’s secretary in Kaduna state, Major Yahaya Shinko (retd), Hunkuyi said the suit was not against APC, but against INEC for including the names of Uba Sani and 34 other candidates since the primaries that produced them did not conform with the Electoral Act as amended.
He said APC, as a party, did not conduct a valid ward congresses to produce delegates that participated in the primaries from where it’s governorship, national and state assembly candidates emerged, thus, they should not have been listed as candidates for the general elections.
According to the governorship hopeful, democracy requires a free, fair and credible election but it cannot bear fruits unless there is transparency in the manner and action of INEC in the conduct of elections in Nigeria.
“NNPP rely on the content of legislation of the Electoral Act chapter 29 which states very clearly that political parties must submit name or names of candidates who emerged through a valid primaries.
“The Federal High Court in it’s ruling declared that our matter is status bar, that the timing between delegate election and the primaries and when the case should have been filed was not followed but the fact is that NNPP did not drag APC to court but INEC for interpretation of Electoral Act section 84 subsection 13.
“The INEC list of candidates cane out on 22ns of July, 2022 and we filed our case on 4th of August, 2022 which is less than 14 days after INEC published names of the candidates. We believe that the judge erred and that the ruling had not been heard on its merit. So, we are going to file an appeal,” he said.
Shinko while corroborating Hunkuyi’s position, said, “we are seeking the court to declare that APC did not hold a valid primary in Kaduna state and therefore has no candidates for the 2023 general elections. In the eye of the law, the APC in Kaduna state had no candidates in the forthcoming elections.”
