Kwara APC faction writes INEC, seeks withdrawal of candidates’ list

A faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw its candidates’ list published last week.

The faction, led by Ishola Balogun-Fulani in a letter to INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu through its counsel, Yusuf O. Ali & Co., and dated January 21, 2019, charged the commission to publish the names of the candidates submitted in line with the judgment of Kwara State High Court.

This, it said, is to sanitise the processes of publishing names of eligible candidates “by restoring credibility to the commission in line with the rule of law.”

In the letter, a copy of which was also sent to the European Union (EU), the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), APC expressed disappointment that INEC published different names of candidates.

Specifically, it mentioned Senatorial and House of Representatives candidates benefiting from the Kwara State High Court judgment delivered in a suit, as candidates from Kwara State against whose names ‘Court Order’ was written in INEC’s list published on January 17, 2019.It also argued that what the commission did by inserting ‘Court Order’ against the names of the candidates when there is no court order to that effect was “criminal, fraudulent and deceitful manipulation of facts.”

Meanwhile, Kwara APC governorship campaign organisation yesterday insisted that the N70 billion memorandum of understanding (MOU) the state government signed with Vasolar Consortium four years ago was a fraud, saying the firm does not exist anywhere in the world.

“We have searched everywhere and there’s nothing to suggest that this firm exists anywhere in the world. A Google search of the firm’s name indicated that the Kwara State Government sponsored the MoU in which the consortium was mentioned.

“Nothing else can be found on this Consortium anywhere else in the world,” Rafiu Ajakaye, spokesman of the campaign organisation, said in a statement.

But in a swift reaction, Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, Muideen Akorede said, “There is nothing secret about the Vasolar project. “Nothing about the project qualifies it as a scam. For the benefit of the Abdulrahman Abdulrazak Campaign Organisation, an MoU is a non-legally binding, but formal agreement between two parties.”