Once again, APC ruled out from election, this time in Niger State

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that the All Progressive Congress (APC) will not participate in the rerun election for Agwara state constituency in Niger State.

This was revealed by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Professor Samuel Egwu, who spoke on the issue with newsmen on Thursday in Minna during a general stakeholders’ meeting held at INEC office.

Speaking further, the INEC REC who said that the commission would not deploy any adhoc staff apart from its internal staff during the rerun poll noted that the APC would not participate in the election because the party was challenged in court after the last general elections. He said.

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According to Professor Egwu, the 12 political parties that will participate in the election fixed for January 25 include: ACD, ADC, AGA, DA, GPN, KP, PPN, PT, SDP, PDP, APGA and AD.

He said; “We are well prepared for the rerun election. The election requires a lot of preparation which is why we call this meeting to rub minds with stakeholders.

“We have 36,411 registered voters with 59 polling units, 65 voters points, 279 INEC staff. Collation officers are likely to be deployed from federal institutions and not INEC staff,” he added.

According to Professor Egwu, INEC was still expecting formal communication from the Speaker of the House of Representatives on the vacant seats in the lower chamber of the National Assembly due to the death of the occupants.

It would be recalled that the APC has had similar situations in the past, where it was prevented from taking part in elections.

During the run up to the 2019 general elections, the party was exempted from taking part in the governorship elections in Rivers and Zamfara states, by the courts, due to internal wrangling in the states’ chapters of the party.

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