Despite having been jailed for 14 years over financial malpractices by a Federal High Court, the seat of former Governor of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye, is yet to be declared vacant.
Declaring his seat vacant would enable the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct a by-election to fill the post.
However, the Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, on Wednesday revealed that the seats of two deceased lawmakers had been declared vacant in the Senate.
The affected legislators, he said, were Mustapha Bukar of Katsina North senatorial district who died on April 4, 2018, and Ali Wakili of Bauchi South senatorial district who died on March 17, 2018.
Yakubu, during a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners in Abuja on Wednesday also disclosed that the House of Representatives had declared vacant the seat of the late Umar Jibril of Lokoja/Kogi Federal Constituency and that of Obudu I state constituency of Cross River State.
He said by-elections would be conducted within the next 30 days.
READ ALSO: Why emphasis should be on population management in economic growth – Udo Udoma
His words: “In the last few days the commission has received an official declaration of vacancies from the National Assembly in respect of Bauchi South Senatorial District, Katsina North Senatorial District and the Lokoja Federal Constituency in Kogi State.
“A similar declaration was made by the Cross River State House of Assembly in respect of Obudu I state constituency. Consequently, the commission is set to conduct by-elections to fill the vacancies in the four constituencies which have a total of over two million registered voters spread across 3,355 polling units in 234 wards and 22 local government areas.
“Considering the requirement of the law that such an election should be conducted by the commission within 30 days following the declaration of vacancy, we are planning to conduct all the four elections on the same date in all the four states.”
