In controversial circumstances, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday substituted the name of Mazi Okwudili Nwa-Anyajike with Mr Felix Johnson Osakwe as the presidential candidate of the National Rescue Mission (NRM).
Nwa-Anyadike, who was at the INEC headquarters in Abuja to fill relevant forms, which would have enabled him to vie for the exalted seat of the presidency in the 2023 polls told The Guardian that he was taken aback by the development.
He said it beats his imagination that his name was substituted by INEC officials working with suspended party officials to hand over the ticket to Osakwe, who he alleged is neither a registered member of NRM nor participated in the presidential primary of the party.
Recalling the failed attempt to substitute his name by disgruntled officials of the party, he said there was no basis for the unlawful conduct of INEC since he did not signify his interest to withdraw from the presidential race in writing.
He thereby called on Prof Mahmoud Yakubu to wade into the issue in the interest of justice and fair play.
He said, “This is a clear case of lawlessness and impunity on the part of INEC. There is no way they can substitute my name with someone who is not even a member of the party and did not participate in the primary election.
“I will resist the act of allowing someone who lost at the primary of another party (AA) to pass through the back door to take the ticket that rightly belongs to me,” he noted.
Nwa-Anyajike at the presidential primaries of the party monitored by INEC and security agencies polled 180 votes to defeat his closest rival, Professor Benedicta Egbo, who scored 30 votes. While Senator Ibrahim Yinusa scored 10, six other aspirants withdrew from the contest.
This is against the backdrop of the decision by the National Executive Committee of the NRM to suspend its national chairman, Ambassador Isaac Ude and national organising secretary, Mr Mohammed Idrissu, for allegedly forging the signature of Nwa-Anyajike.
Senator Saidu Dansauda, chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, berated the duo for the alleged criminal act.
The BoT chairman lamented the behaviour of the suspended national officers, which he said was a gross violation of the mission of the party to rescue Nigeria.
Dansauda urged the police to expeditiously investigate, arrest and arraign Ambassador Ude and Idrissu for undermining the integrity of the NRM.
Also speaking, the presidential candidate of the party, Mazi Nwa- Anyajike, narrated that the suspended national chairman and organising secretary allegedly conspired with one Pastor Osakwe to forge his signature after paying the suspended party officials N20m for the party’s presidential ticket.
In a vote at the end of the NEC, party officials passed a vote of confidence on their presidential candidate, Mazi Nwa- Anyajike, and urged the rank and file of the party to rally behind him to rescue Nigeria from the pangs of insecurity and hunger occasioned by poor leadership of the APC government led by President Muhammad Buhari.
