President Muhammadu Buhari, former vice president Atiku Abubakar and 74 others have been named as contestants for the 2019 presidential poll in the provisional list released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

A total of 76 political parties will contest for presidency in 2019 general elections, according to the INEC publication.

The list, released, yesterday, in compliance with Section 31 (1 and 3) of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended), also named Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, former governor Sam Egwu, Victor Umeh, Stella Oduah, Uche Ekwenife, and others as candidates for the National Assembly in their various states.

In Anambra Central Senatorial district, the published candidates are Charles Odunukwe of the Peoples Democratic (PDP), Chief Umeh of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Mrs. Ekwunife of All Progressives Congress (APC).

In South Senatorial district, a serving senator, Andy Uba of the APC, Chukwunedum Ubah of the PDP and Nicholas Ukachukwu of APGA made the list.

For North Senatorial district, a former senator, Margery Okadigbo of the APC, Mrs. Oduah of the PDP and Chinedu Emeka of APGA made the provisional list.

Ogun

In Ogun State, only the list of senatorial and House of Representatives candidates of the APC and that of the ADC were available at the INEC office in the state.

The list of PDP National Assembly candidates, was however, not available as at press time last night.

For the ADC, the senatorial candidates on the INEC list include the former Speaker of the House of Assembly, Titi Oseni-Gomez as candidate in Ogun Central, Adedeji Ashiru, Ogun East and Babatunde Ogunnola, Ogun West.

For the House of Representatives, ADC would field Fasasi Oyemade, Remo Federal Constituency, Olaifa Aremu, Egbado North/ Imeko-Afon, Abiodun Akinboyede, Ado-Odo/Ota Federal Constituency, Gabriel Omolaja, Ijebu Ode/ Ijebu North East/Odogbolu, Ogundimu Akande, Abeokuta South, Olude Adewale, Egbado South/ Ipokia, Omoleye Olabode, Abeokuta North, Obafemi-Owode/Odeda and Jenriyi Oshinowo, Ijebu North/ Ijebu East/ Ogun Waterside. The candidate for Ifo/ Ewekoro Federal Constituency was not published on the INEC list.

Those to fly the APC senatorial flag are Lekan Mustapha, Ogun East, the incumbent Chief of Staff to Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Tolu Odebiyi, Ogun West, while Governor Amosun would vie for Ogun Central.

For the House of Representatives, Jimoh Ojugbele, Kayode Oladele and Ibrahim Isiaka would slug it to be returned to Ado-Odo/Ota, Egbado North/Imeko-Afon and Ifo/Ewekoro federal constituencies, respectively.

Others include: Biyi Otegbeye, Egbado South/ Ipokia, Biyi Ismail, Ijebu North/East/Ogun Waterside, Olumide Osoba, Abeokuta North/Obafemi-Owode/ Odeda, Olanrewaju Edun, Abeokuta South, Adewunmi Onanuga, Remo federal constituency and Osunsanya Akorede, Ijebu Ode/Ijebu North and Odogbolu federal constituency.

Head of the Public Affairs Department of INEC in Lagos, Femi Akinbiyi, revealed that 50 candidates would contest for the three Lagos Senatorial seats on the platform of 25 political parties and 249 candidates across 30 political parties would contest the state’s 24 seats in the House of Representatives.

Lagos West Senatorial District has 22 candidates, Lagos East and Lagos Central 15 and 13 candidates respectively.

For the House of Representatives election, only the PDP, APC and ADC fielded candidates in all the 24 federal constituencies.

Ebonyi, Kogi, Ebonyi, Oyo

Top on the list of candidates displayed as eligible to contest the National Assembly seats in Ebonyi State on the ticket of the PDP are Dr. Sam Egwu for Ebonyi North and his counterpart for Ebonyi Central, Senator Obinna Ogba.

In the APC, a former senator and pioneer speaker of the state, Julius Ucha made it for Ebonyi Central.

It could not be confirmed whether former Minister of State for Power and Steel, Chief Godwin Ogbaga eventually made the list as APC candidate for Ebonyi North.

In Benue, INEC’s State Public Relations Officer, Terka Andya, said the list will be posted in all the 23 local government headquarters of the state.

Andya in a telephone chat said that already, the list had been posted in zones A and C of the state while staff of the Commission are working assiduously to ensure that the list for zone B is posted before midnight to meet the deadline given by the INEC chairman.

He assured that by today, everyone would have access to the list which would be pasted on the notice boards in all the local government offices of INEC across the state.

The Kogi State office of INEC only published the list of all the presidential candidates. It was gathered that a comprehensive list of all the candidates will be published on or before Saturday.

The situation was not the same in Enugu State when Daily Sun visited the Independence Layout office of the commission by 8pm; as the list was yet to be displayed.

Attempts to reach the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Emeka Ononamadu was not fruitful.

The REC for Oyo State, Mutiu Agboke, led a delegation of INEC officials to paste the list of presidential candidates and photocopies of their credentials at the state headquarters of the commission.

He said the lists of candidates for Senatorial and House of Representatives would be pasted today at local government offices of the commission across the state.

Head of Voters Education and Publicity in Zamfara State INEC office, Garba Galadima, said the office was yet to receive the list.

He said the most recent list the office received from the INEC headquarters was the claims and objectives list of all the Senate and House of Representatives aspirants in the state.

“The new list we have is those pasted outside the gate”, he said.

The list pasted outside the Zamfara INEC office is stamped and dated October 17, 2018.

However, if INEC follow through its threat, APC might not field candidates for any of the position owing to its failure to conduct primary elections.

•Text (excluding headline) sourced from Daily Sun report

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