September 18, (THEWILL) – Matthew Kolawole, the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, who is also the lawmaker representing Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu Constituency on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, may have to forget about his ambition to become a lawmaker in the Federal House of Representatives in 2023.
Earlier Kolawole had made his intention known to contest for the House of Representatives seat for Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency on the platform of the APC in 2023. He contested in the party’s primary election in May 2023 and defeated other contestants in by a total of 69 votes.
Despite his victory at the primary in May, his name was missing from the list of all candidates of political parties to contest in the 2023 general election as released on the portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
It happened after the expiration of the deadline for submission of the names of candidates. Kolawole ran to the INEC office to lodge a complaint about his missing name but was told that the uploading of names of candidates was done by the political parties themselves as INEC didn’t interfere with the list.
He had to approach a High Court in Lokoja to compel INEC and the APC to upload his name as the duly elected House of Representative candidate for Kabba-Bunu /Ijumu Federal Constituency.
After going back and forth in court, the court gave its ruling last week and stated that it cannot compel INEC to open its portal and accept Kolawole’s candidacy.
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