The Chairman, Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, OSIEC, Mr Hashim Abioye has disclosed the All Progressives Congress, APC, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as well as other political parties have 48 to undue infractions in the nomination of its candidates.
He also disclosed that candidates of the APC, the Allied Peoples Movement and the Action Peoples Party, APP, who were illegally substituted cannot take part in the election over breach of the law.
Addressing journalists at the Correspondents Chapel in Osogbo, on Wednesday, Hashim disclosed that the outcome of its verification committee has revealed that most of the party committee had an infraction or the other.
According to him, we have written to all the parties involved to correct remediable infractions regarding their candidate’s nomination within 48 hours while the breaches that cannot be corrected remain unresolved.
The APC for instance has cases of illegal replacement of candidates for Chairmanship and Vice Chairmanship, which is not remediable in seven local government areas of the state.
He said, “The provision of the law is not an innovation, it is also contained in the Electoral Act, 2022, which is the provision we have now adopted. For this reason, some political parties, notably the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and the Action Peoples Party (APP) ran foul of the provisions and procedure regarding the substitution of candidates.
“While no substitution can be validly done without following the rules, any substitution or change of candidate done after the purported candidate intended to be a replacement for another must have been given and submitted nomination form despite his/her name not being on the list originally submitted to the Commission would be void.
“Let me note once again that virtually all the political parties contesting the elections had one case or another of the infractions which are remediable, but the political parties highlighted above committed the most of the infractions that are incurable by giving nomination form for candidates whose names were not on the list in some local government areas and wards. This we cannot help.
“Being a major political party, I will take that of the APC as an example. In Atakumosa West Local Government, the Chairmanship and Vice-Chairmanship candidates submitted by the party to the Commission were not the persons who filled out nomination forms submitted to OSSIEC.
“In the same vein, the respective vice-chairmanship candidates submitted by the APC for Ede South, Egbedore, Ife Central, Ifedayo, Isokan, Olorunda and Oriade Local Government Areas were completely different from the persons that filled and submitted nomination forms to the Commission. Candidates of the APC in several Wards across various local government areas were affected by this incurable anomaly.”
