The University of Ibadan Medical Students’ Association Electoral Commission (UIMSAEC) has disqualified the candidate for the vacant Assistant General Secretary position, Asogwa Emmanuella, following her ‘declining of an invitation to the electoral screening exercise’ yesterday, 16th January, 2025.
This was made known in a release made by the UIMSAEC minutes before 6 PM yesterday evening.
The UIMSAEC had previously released the schedule for the bye-election on the 11th of January, 2025, with the Manifesto Night and Election set to take place on the 17th and 18th of January, 2025, respectively. A list containing the names of aspirants, of which fifth-year Miss Asogwa was the sole candidate, accompanied the message. However, the UIMSAEIC had to comply with Section 7d of Article XXII Chapter Six of the UIMSA Constitution which states that the Electoral Commission “shall disqualify any nominations not complying with the provisions of this Constitution”, which Miss Asogwa fulfilled by failing to comply with Section 6 of the same Article ( [The Electoral Commission] Shall screen all candidates contesting for the Association’s Executive offices, Senatorial and Congressional seats).
The UIMSA Press reached out to Miss Asogwa concerning her reason for declining the invitation to the screening. There has been no response as of Press time. However, according to information relayed to the UIMSAEC Chairperson, Miss Angela Edhere, by an electoral officer, she [Miss Asogwa] declined the invitation as she had changed her mind regarding the nomination. “She had reconsidered her workload and decided that she would be unable to manage the position of AGS with all her other commitments”, Miss Edhere added.
Speaking with the Press, on the next steps, Miss Angela, said, “Well, per the constitution, the position is supposed to be filled via bye-election within 30 days of the vacancy. I received notice of the vacancy on the 21st of December so the electoral commission was working to fill up the position by January 19th. Considering the bye-election process has failed and cannot succeed in producing an officer-elect by January 19th, the process to fill up the position will continue constitutionally”.
According to 24a of Article XXIII of the same Chapter, “Where (24 i.e the bye-election) above fails to fill the vacant positions, the Senate shall have power to: a)In the case of the Executive Council, appoint a member of the Association to the office on the recommendation of the Executive Council and ratification by two-third (2/3) majority of Senators present and voting”. This means the burden of filling the position now lies with the UIMSA Senate.