INEC cannot help you, APC tells R-APC

APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has told the reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC) that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cannot help them.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Bolaji Abdullahi, made this known in a message on Wednesday, reacting to the letter by the R-APC chairman, Buba Galadima, to the commission.

The chairman of the R-APC, Buba Galadima, had written to INEC on July 4, seeking to invalidate what he described as the purported election of the Adams Oshiomole-led National Executive Committee of the APC.

The committee members were elected at the party’s national convention which held at the Eagle Square on June 23 and 24.

In the letter, Mr Galadima, who led some aggrieved members of the APC to form a splinter group, told the electoral body that the congresses leading up to the national convention of the party were marred with serious irregularities and manipulations.

Mr Abdulahi said the action is ill-conceived, which makes it futile as INEC cannot cancel an election it did not conduct.

He also pointed out that the writer of the letter did not contest for any position in the election and those who did and are aggrieved have the appeal committee to address their grievances.

“I will like to point out that the action is ill-conceived and therefore futile. INEC has no powers to cancel an election it did not organise.

“Secondly, the man calling for the cancellation of the convention did not contest for any position at the convention (and) therefore has no locus to complain about its outcome.

“Besides, if candidate was not happy with the election process at the convention, they should petition the appeals committee. INEC cannot help them.”

The R-APC is a renegade faction of the APC which is believed to have the backing of Senate President Bukola Saraki and House Speaker Yakubu Dogara. It is in talks with other parties to form a coalition against the APC in 2019.