It is expected that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will today release the final list of candidates eligible to contest elections as presidential and National Assembly candidates. 

The commission had in June released the particulars of about 16 presidential candidates, their running mates as well as senatorial and House of Representatives candidates as submitted by their respective political parties. 

In some states, some candidatures of some aspirants remain uncertain.

In Yobe State, it is not clear who will be accorded recognition between the incumbent Senate president, Ahmad Lawan, and Bashir Sheriff Machina for the ticket of Yobe North senatorial ticket. 

The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) had since proclaimed Senator Lawan as the valid candidate as against Machina, believed to have won the primary conducted by INEC. 

The latter had since filed a suit before a Federal High Court in Damaturu, Yobe State capital, to challenge the party’s claim that Lawan is the duly nominated candidate. 

In Akwa Ibom North-West, the battle for the ticket appeared to have been settled with a Federal High Court’s pronouncement last week, which declared former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, as the authentic candidate as against the position of the INEC, which declared Udom Udo Ekpoudom as winner of valid primary held on May 27, 2022. 

The court ordered the electoral umpire to accept and publish Akpabio’s name as APC senatorial candidate for Akwa Ibom North/West senatorial district in 2023. 

Justice Emeka Nwite held that INEC acted illegally by refusing to accept and publish Akpabio’s name after it was sent by APC.

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