Senate President Godswill Akpabio has announced the vacant seats of Senators David Umahi and Ibrahim Geidam, who recently took up ministerial roles in Works and Police Affairs, respectively. Umahi represented Ebonyi south, while Geidam represented Yobe east.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is now tasked with organizing by-elections in these senatorial districts, as confirmed by INEC chairman Mahmoud Yakubu earlier this week. He mentioned the possibility of conducting by-elections and rerun polls in various constituencies in February 2024.
Yakubu emphasized that political parties must conduct fresh primaries within the legally stipulated timeframe for the upcoming by-elections.
In his words: “With regard to the by-elections, you may recall that in my recent address at the swearing-in of new resident electoral commissioners (RECs), which was combined with our last quarterly meeting with the RECs nationwide, I made a commitment that the commission will conduct elections to fill vacancies in the national and state assembly constituencies.”