The Independent National Electoral Commission has rejected the name of the candidates submitted for the governorship election of Edo State by the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the Peoples Democratic Party.

The commission said that it decided to reject the list based on the fact that it did not monitor the primary that produced the faction’s governorship candidate, Mr. Matthew Iduoriyekwemwen.

The Deputy Director in charge of Publicity and Voters’ Education at the commission’s headquarters, Mr. Nick Dazang, stated this in a text message to our correspondent late on Tuesday night.


 
He said that the commission had accepted the name submitted by the Chairman of the party’s National Caretaker Committee, Ahmed Makarfi.

Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is the candidate of the Makarfi-led faction of the party.

He said that the commission had received the names of governorship candidates from 18 other political parties, apart from the PDP.

He said, “As of this evening, we have received 19 candidates from 19 political parties for the Edo governorship  election.

“These include the candidate of the Makarfi-led faction of the PDP. We received the candidate of the Makarfi-led faction because of the Port Harcourt court judgement plus the fact that we monitored its primaries.”

Other political parties listed include AA, ACD, ACPN, APC, APGA, LP, MPPP, NCP, NNPP, PDC, PPA, PPN, SDP, UPP and YDP.

The two factions had on Monday submitted names of their governorship candidates for the state to the to the commission.