By Chinelo Obogo
The Alliance for Democracy (AD) has written a petition to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the omission of its governorship candidate, Valentine Onwuka and his running mate Chijioke Onyekaonwu, from the published list of governorship candidates for the election.
In the statement issued, the party’s national chairman, Alhaji Ismaila Ayodele, expressed surprise that despite fulfilling all the requirements of the electoral law before and after the primary, the name of its candidate was still omitted by the commission.
“The party complied with Sections 85 and 87 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) in notifying the Commission of the date, venue and time of the party’s primary election in Awka, Anambra State which the Commission duly monitored on August 22, 2017. The party also collected and submitted Forms F 001 and F 002.
“We are therefore surprised that the names of our governorship and deputy governorship candidates did not appear in the published list of candidates for the election. We urge you to use your good offices to rectify this and ensure that the names of our Candidates are included in the list of those contesting the election.
“We reaffirm our confidence in the Commission and believe that all eligible candidates for the election will be given the opportunity to participate in it. This is the only way we will deepen our emerging democracy and we look forward to the inclusion of our party’s candidates names in the list” Ayodele said.