BY JOHN BULUS

GOMBE—The governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in Gombe State in the last election, Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim Hassan, has threatened to take legal action against the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over what he described as the exclusion of his name in Tuesday’s gubernatorial poll in the state.

Hassan, who spoke to Vanguard, said he was miffed to know that INEC excluded him on the list when he received some documents from INEC containing the lists of  contestants.

He lamented that  other candidates for various positions in the party were removed except in Kaltungo/Shomgom Federal Constituency and Kaltungo West State Constituency.

The candidate said the reasons given by INEC were that the candidates were not validly nominated by the party as the party did not conduct valid primaries.

Responding to this, Hassan said INEC lacked the powers to disqualify candidate nominated by his/her party and wondered why the ballot papers bore the party’s logo.

Said Hassan: “INEC has denied us the right to participate in the governance of the democratic federation of Nigeria by excluding ACN candidates from Tuesday’s governorship/legislative elections, contrary to Section 14 (2c) of the 1999 Constitution. INEC cannot constitute itself into a court of law to disqualify or reject my nomination.”