A lawyer, Abdul Adamu Fagge, has advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure compliance with the timetable for the 2023 general elections.
In a letter dated September 2, 2022, and addressed to the chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, Fagge submitted that the timetable, guidelines and schedule of activities have the same force as any enabling law and all political parties are under an obligation to comply.
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The lawyer said his intervention followed questions about whether the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) can submit names of other candidates, and upon such submission, INEC is obliged to accept, after the earlier set deadlines of July 15 and August 12, have been closed.
He said candidates’ nomination was regulated under the provisions of sections 29(1), 31, 32(1) and 33 of the Electoral Act, 2022 vis a viz Section 78 and paragraph 15 of the 3rd Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as altered) and Section 28(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
“Based on the above decision and other relevant laws cited, it is beyond doubt that the INEC timetable is not an instruction or guide but a command which all political parties must comply with,” he said.
He added that any need to amend the provisions of the law on substitution and replacement of candidates of political parties as spelt would be done by the National Assembly.
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