INEC continues doublespeak as Tinubu, Obi juggle running mates

INEC Information Commissioner Festus Okoye in one breath said the electoral act make no provision for placeholder, and in the same breath indicated the legal process a party can manipulate a placeholder.

According to him in an interview on ARISE TV on Monday, the constitution compels  every presidential candidate to have a running mate, and both candidates must submit their names to INEC.

APC’s presidential candidate Bola Tinubu submitted Kabir Masari before the June 17 deadline, and LP’s Peter Obi did the same.

But both have a plan to substitute the running mates, and INEC just kicked against it.

“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 space holder.

“The issue of space or place holder is a unique Nigerian invention that has no place in our constitutional and legal framework,” he said.

“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.”

So irrespective of the commission’s somersault, Tinubu and Obi know what to do in case they go ahead with the game they play with the system.

As Okoye said, a sworn affidavit is all it takes.