By John Ugo, Awka
There was confusion on Tuesday in Benin and others parts of Edo state over a purported list of candidates from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2023 polls.
The list which went viral indicated that that an updated list in the portal of the election body captured all the candidates of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the Senate, House of Representatives and the state House of Assembly belonging to the camp of Governor Godwin Obaseki.
The said list caused jubilation in the camp of the supporters of Obaseki who shared them in various social media platforms while it created anxiety in the camp of members loyal to the National Vice Chairman, South-South of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih.
However, the Head of Department, Voter Education and Publicity, of the INEC, in the state, Timidi Wariowei said the office has not received any new list of candidates.
He said “People should be wary of many of these online publications flying everywhere.
“We are not hiding anything, there is no new list from INEC as of today and issues are still in court so whatever the court decides, INEC will act accordingly.
“If there is any court directive, we will comply but as at today, what we have is what has been displayed and we will also comply if there is any directive to carry out any other action” he said.
“There are cases in court over who the authentic candidates of the PDP are and the Supreme Court recently ruled in one of the cases that the courts have no jurisdiction on who the delegates and candidates of political parties are insisting that these issues are purely the internal affairs of the parties.