Hon Magaji Abubakar Olawoyin’s death on Monday has set the stage for a possible bruising battle over his replacement.
Olawoyin, who had been down with an illness, was until his death on Monday morning, a prominent member of the ruling APC in Kwara state, and a state lawmaker.
The deceased politician was not an ordinary member of the Kwara state House of Assembly- he was the House Leader.
Magaji, who was until his death on Monday morning, the representative of Ilorin Central state constituency, was also seeking to retain his parliament seat this year being one of the members of the House of Assembly that had gotten nominated by the APC for the House of Assembly election scheduled to hold in March.
The battle to replace him had since begun and those seeking to become the new Ilorin Central APC House of Assembly candidate are already taking necessary steps to get this achieved.
Different lines of arguments had since surfaced, and many had also suddenly ascribed to themselves the status of a constitutional lawyer.
While many argued that the idea of having a bye-election will be unreasonable since the 2023 House of Assembly election has been scheduled to hold on March 11 , some had also submitted that the candidate who came second in the primary election held last year ought to automatically get named as Olawoyin’s replacement.
Some among party members have however called for a fresh primary election that will allow new faces to join the race.
In the primary election that was held last year, Hon. Abubakar Olawoyin had 13 votes, Abdulrasheed Laaro Oladimeji got 2 votes, Engineer Isiaka Toyin Agaka ,Bello Munirat Bolajoko and Lawal Abimbola Monshurat had 1 vote each.
‘What will happen to those who had paid for the nomination forms last year ? Will they pay for the nomination form for the second time in seven months?
A primary election has been held and there was a runner-up, and he should simply be nominated by the party. If there will however be a fresh primary election, those who had paid for nomination form before should be allowed to participate without paying a dime’ said a source.
A source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also told Team@orientactualmags.com that while no one knows the decision that will eventually be taken on the issue by the party leaders, there was however an unspoken agreement that female aspirants should not join the race.
‘We have six parliament seats at the state level in Kwara Central and four among them are female candidates, so we don’t expect female aspirants to participate’ she submitted.
It was also reliably gathered that one of the deceased lawmaker’s relatives has shown interest in becoming his replacement and he has begun to take necessary steps while asking people to put in a good word for him with the state APC bigwigs.
He was said to have argued that when Ahmed Saidu Rufai, who represented Patigi state constituency died in December 2019, his brother was named as his replacement.
Those opposing this line of argument had however argued forcibly that such an idea may be counterproductive this time around.
‘Yes, a member of the House of Assembly from Patigi died and his brother was named as his replacement , during Abdulfatah Ahmed administration too, a lawmaker died and his wife took over his parliament seat but what many do not know was that in the case of Ahmed Saidu Rufai , the state lawmakers had shortly before his death gotten 40 million naira loan each and it was argued that only his brother can take care of the large family that he left behind but considering the timing, such an idea cannot be contemplated this time around’ he said.
Section 33 of the 2022 electoral act says:
‘A political party shall not be allowed to change or substitute a candidate whose name has been submitted under section 29 of this act except in the case of death or withdrawal by the candidate.
Provided that in the case of such withdrawal or death of a candidate, the political party affected shall within 14 days of the occurrence of the event hold a fresh primary election to produce and submit a fresh candidate to the commission for the election concerned’ – Team@orientactualmags.com
Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980. Thank you
