The member representing Gwer-East/Gwer-West federal constituency of Benue State at the House of Representatives, Mark Gbillah, has said his purported disqualification by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest for the Benue North-West Senate seat on the ticket of the Labour Party was malicious.
He disclosed this yesterday at a press briefing over a publication by an online news platform that he was disqualified over the reported appearance of his name as the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and Labour Party’s (LP) candidate on the list of candidates released by the INEC.
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Gbillah said he remained the candidate of the Labour Party for Benue North-West senatorial zone in the 2023 general elections and not the NNPP.
He said INEC published his name for both LP and NNPP for the Benue North-West senatorial district election without his knowledge, adding that he had initiated legal action against commission and the NNPP in order to correct the error.
He said INEC published his name as sent by the NNPP, even as he had already resigned his membership of the party and withdrawn his senatorial candidature on its platform.
He said he joined the LP and participated in its rescheduled senatorial primary for the district on July 11.
He said the error occurred because of NNPP’s failure to upload the name of the candidate that replaced him to the INEC portal within the timeline provided by the electoral umpire.
The House of Reps member said he was returned unopposed as the LP candidate in the election, adding that the documents are all in INEC’s possession.
