Photo: Lawan, Akpabio to go to jail?
The President of the Senate, Sen Ahmad Lawan; ex-Akwa Ibom Gov, Godswill Akpabio, Sokoto Gov Aminu Tambuwal, are among politicians who risk a jail term of two years in prison for breaching the provision of Section 115 (D) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Other prominent politicians who might have violated the Electoral Act 2023 include Gov Ben Ayade of Cross River and Bala Mohammed of Bauchi.
Mike Igini, the Resident Commissioner, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Akwa Ibom State, made this known white speaking on a Channels TV, interview program.
Igini stressed that such politicians had committed an electoral offence and were liable to two years imprisonment for obtaining more than one nomination forms during the last primary elections,
“A person, who signs a nomination paper or result form as a candidate in more than one constituency at the same election, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum term of imprisonment for two years.
“Section 115 (D) of the 2022 Electoral Act stipulates that no person shall sign, obtain more than one form as a candidate for different elections.
“We are preventing them from being candidates for prison and they are calling our names everywhere,” Igini said.
The INEC boss further said that any candidate who ran foul of that provision of the electoral law was liable to two years imprisonment, adding that even Section 115 (3) provided that a mere attempt to obtain multiple forms is an offence.
Igini said by “constituency,” the electoral term refers to a separate election whether it is presidential, governorship, senatorial, the House of Representatives or that of state assembly.
According to him, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, after losing the APC presidential primary election asked Bashir Machina, the winner of the Yobe North Senatorial primary, to surrender the ticket to him, a request which Machina refused.
He said that in the case of Akpabio, he too had aspired for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), but later withdrew for Tinubu, who eventually won the presidential primary.
Igini further explained that prior to the presidential primary on May 27, Udom Ekpoudom, a former Deputy Inspector-General of Police, had won the primary election for the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial ticket.
He said that a parallel primary election was conducted and won by Ekperikpe Ekpo, but was later cancelled over alleged irregularities, culminating in a rerun which paved the way for Akpabio’s emergence as the purported winner.
The INEC boss stressed that INEC did not monitor the primaries that produced Akpabio as the senatorial candidate for Akwa-Ibom North-West.
Igini insisted that ,by implication, Lawan and Akpabio, like others, might have secretly obtained the nomination forms for the senatorial seat of their respective districts while also seeking a presidential ticket in brazen violation of the Electoral Act 2022 and risk going to jail.
