57 days to the 2023 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has insisted that Akin Osuntokun, the newly-appointed Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), remains the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) senatorial candidate for Ekiti central in Ekiti State.
POLITICS NIGERIA recalls that in an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday, Osuntokun stated that he had abandoned his senatorial ambition under ZLP to take up Obi’s campaign DG post.
But INEC Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, has said that no individual or political party can at this point withdraw, submit or substitute the name of any candidate taking part in the 2023 general elections, stressing that Osuntokun remains ZLP’s Ekiti Central Senatorial candidate.
“The law is very clear,” he told Premium Times on Thursday. “The period for substitution and the period for withdrawal in our (INEC) timetable and schedule of activities as well as in the electoral act, has elapsed.”
This newspaper understands that for INEC to amend the names of candidates already submitted at this point, it must be through the order of a court of law.
