THE Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Surulere local government area of Lagos state, Fuad Kayode-Laguda, has emerged as the party’s candidate for the by-election scheduled for Saturday, February 3, to produce a legislator to represent Surulere 1 Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives.
He won the party’s primary held on Saturday, January 6, at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, after defeating Kabir Lawal, Jamila Omobolanle and AbdulRaheem Owokoniran.
He secured all the 30 votes cast at the election.
The primary was held a day after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) issued a notice of the by-election in the constituency.
The seat became vacant on June 14 after the former legislator representing the constituency, Femi Gbajabiamila, was appointed as Chief of Staff for President Bola Tinubu.
Gbajabiamila had won election for the sixth time before his appointment.
Since he left the House of Representatives, the seat remained vacant for nearly seven months, leaving his constituents without representation.
The ICIR reported that INEC’s delay in announcing the by-election contravenes Nigeria’s Constitution (1999 as amended), which provides that the election date for vacancy into the National Assembly should be fixed no later than a month after the seat was vacated, if it became vacant more than three months to the date the House is dissolved.
Section 76(1) and (2) state that “elections to each House of the National Assembly shall be held on a date to be appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“The date mentioned in subsection (1) of this section shall not be earlier than sixty days before and not later than the date on which the House stands dissolved, or where the election is to fill a vacancy occurring more than three months before such date not later than one month after the vacancy occurred.”
Legal practitioners have also described the delay as a violation of the rights of residents of the Surulere 1 Federal Constituency.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.