The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 election, Omoyele Sowore, has told Nigerian lawmakers the lacuna in the Electoral Act got the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan “fraudulently declared a candidate” in an election where he did not contest the primaries.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that speaking on Wednesday at the joint special hearing on the extent of the implementation of the Electoral Act2022 ahead of the conduct of the 2023 elections, the AAC candidate also bemoaned the ‘exploitation’ of the Electoral Act by the judiciary.
He said: “I seriously think that the Electoral Act has a lacuna that is being exploited by the judiciary.
“We are all aware that even though the portal for electoral processes has been closed, courts are still giving conflicting judgements regarding candidates in this election, including some candidates that did not even participate in primaries that have been imposed on INEC as we speak. One of them is your president here.”
He continued: “An Electoral Act that also allow the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to be a major decision-maker for parties is not a democratic electoral act.
“I also want to say that the Senate should look directly into how to curb INEC’s power to directly to deregister parties, because that does not promote democracy at all. This would shut out very serious ideological parties.”
Furthermore, the media entrepreneur said that INEC servers lack the power to handle “pressures” from Nigerians, especially as it concerns “answering public queries in a national election”.
According to him, he tested it (INEC server) in the 2022 Osun election, and he is not confident in its ability.
