2023: Why Tinubu, Peter Obi can’t replace their running mate – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Monday, revealed that the presidential candidates, Bola Tinubu and Peter Obi would not be able to replace their running mates.

The Commission ruled out the concept of a “placeholder” or dummy vice presidential candidate as done by political parties, adding that it has no place in the constitution of Nigeria.

After the completion of the presidential primaries, INEC had set June 17 as the deadline for the nomination of vice-presidential candidates provided by the Electoral Act.

However, as some political parties continued to search for the rightful VP candidate, and to beat the deadline set by INEC for the submission of names, some candidates, including Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, submitted names of vice-presidential candidates whom they described as “placeholders or dummies.”

While Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, beat the deadline and submitted the name of Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate, the likes of Labour Party, LP and the All Progressives Congress, APC, are yet to pick their running mates.

APC candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, submitted Ibrahim Kabir Masari, the younger brother of Katsina State Governor while Peter Obi of the LP gave INEC the name of his Campaign Director-General, Doyin Okupe.

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But, while speaking during a chat on ARISE TV on Monday, INEC Commissioner for Voters’ Education and Information, Barrister Festus Okoye, ruled out the concept of “placeholder” for vice-presidential candidates, saying it has no place in the constitution of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He said, “placeholder is a unique Nigerian invention” for which the commission’s law has no provision.

According to him, the constitution makes it very clear that you cannot run alone as a presidential candidate and must nominate an associate to run with you for that position, and as far as INEC is concerned, the presidential candidates have submitted their associates to run with them in the presidential election.

“As far as we are concerned, there’s no form submitted by the presidential candidate where they said ‘we’re submitting this person’s name as a place or placeholder,” he said

According to him, political parties’ candidates have submitted names of associates to run with them, and that is the position of the law as of today and nothing has changed, adding that for there to be, a substitution of a candidate, the vice-presidential candidate must write to INEC, with a sworn affidavit stating that he is withdrawing from the race within the time frame provided by the law. That’s the only way there can be a substitution of candidates.

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