Zamfara: APC will field candidates in 2019 – Ruling party dares INEC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) says it will field candidates for
all elective positions in Zamfara in the 2019 general elections,
despite its disqualification by the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC).

Mallam Lanre Onilu, the party's National Publicity Secretary, stated
this while reacting to the insistence of INEC's Chairman, Prof.
Mahmood Yakubu on Monday in Abuja on the issue.

Yakubu made the emphasis while speaking on the sideline of the ongoing
three-day validation workshop on the cost of election in the ECOWAS
region.

The APC spokesman, however, said the party would go ahead to submit
list of its candidates for all positions in Zamfara.

He added that the party would meet all requirements for submission of
candidates from Zamfara state.

"INEC cannot say that we don't have candidates for election until the
deadline has expired.

"We have options of consensus, direct and indirect primaries and we
are going to apply, like we have done in other states, our energies,
time and concerns to pick our candidates.

"I can assure you that before the Oct. 18 deadline, we are going to
meet all INEC requirements and we are going to submit names of all the
candidates for not only Zamfara but the 36 states and the FCT," he
said.

The APC spokesman also dismissed the suggestion that the party might
sue INEC, saying: "It is not yet something for the party to take legal
action.

"Nothing calls for that. We would not be reacting to what INEC said in
the public," he said.

He explained that after the party got a letter from INEC, it replied
it but was yet to receive a reply from the commission.

"We are on the side of the law, we had a primary in Zamfara. We are
operating within the guidelines of INEC and the Constitution of the
Federal Republic Nigeria.

"We believe that INEC does not have the correct information on what
happened in Zamfara and this we have stated in our letter to the
commission.

"They haven't replied our letter, we also ask INEC that if they need
more information from us, that we will be ready to offer it," Onilu
said