Following the death of of the Labour Party candidate, Oyibo Chukwu, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has suspended the conduct of the Enugu East Senatorial District election.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu made this known at the Commission ‘s daily media briefing on 2023 General Election at the National Collation Centre, in Abuja.
Recall that the late Oyibo Chukwu, candidate of the Labour Party in Saturday’s Enugu East Senatorial District election, was killed on Wednesday, barely 48 hours to the election.
Yakubu said the Labour Party has provided satisfactory evidence of the death of its candidate.
The INEC Chairman disclosed that the election would now hold during the governorship polls on March 11, 2023.
“The second issue is the unfortunate incident involving the candidate of the Labour Party in Enugu State. I can confirm that we have now received a formal communication from the party informing the Commission of the death of its candidate for Enugu East Senatorial District.
“The party also conveyed its intention to participate in the election for that constituency by replacing its deceased candidate. This request is in line with the provision of the law.
“I wish to quote verbatim the provision of Section 34(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 as follows:
If, after the time for the delivery of nomination paper and before the commencement of the poll, a nominated candidate dies, the Chief National Electoral Commissioner shall, being satisfied of the fact of the death, countermand the poll in which the deceased candidate was to participate and the Commission shall appoint some other convenient date for the election within 14 days.
“Therefore, there will be no senatorial election in Enugu East Senatorial District made up of six Local Government Areas, 77 Wards and 1,630 Polling Units.
“The election will now be combined with the Governorship and State Assembly elections holding in the next two weeks on 11th March 2023. Materials already delivered for the senatorial election will remain in the custody of the Central Bank in the State until the new date for election”, the iNEC Chairman stated..
