The names of Senate President Ahmad Lawan, Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi and former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Godswill Akpabio were notably absent from a list of Presidential, Vice Presidential, Senatorial and House of Representatives candidates for the 2023 elections.

On Friday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) published the particulars, explaining why some of the above names submitted by the political parties were expunged from the list published by the electoral body.

“If you look at section 29 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022. Section 29 says ‘every political party shall not later than 180 days before the date appointed for a general election under this act submit to the commission in the prescribed forms, the list of the candidates they are proposing to support at the election, who must have emerged from valid primaries conducted by the political parties,” INEC’s National Commissioner Festus Okoye said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday.

“So, if a political party has uploaded the list and personal particulars of a candidate that did not emerge from valid party primary, INEC is not under a constitutional and legal obligation to publish the particulars of such a candidate,” Mr Okoye added.

However, Mr Okoye noted that the electoral body has not published the final list of validly nominated candidates.

“The final list of validly nominated candidates will be published by the Independent National Electoral Commission on the 20th day of September 2022. And that is for presidential and national assembly candidates,” Mr Okoye said. 

The trio had contested at the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary. Messrs Lawan and Umahi lost the elections while Mr Akpabio stepped down for former Lagos Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.