Kaduna LG Election: CNPP Calls for Disqualification of APC
BY ALEX UANGBAOJE, Kaduna
Congress of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Kaduna State chapter has called on the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (KAD-SIECOM), to disqualify the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), from contesting the councillorship positions in the upcoming Local Government Election in the State.
CNPP Chairman Umar Ibrahim, who is also the Labour Party Chairman in the state, made the call at the weekend during an interactive interface of critical stakeholders in the electoral process in the state, to engage Election Management Bodies in preparation for the forthcoming LG elections organised by LEADS-Nigeria supported by Voice to the People (V2P) of UKAid.
The aim of the interface was to address some of the challenges being raised by stakeholders towards ensuring the elections is free, fair, credible and violence free.
Umar, accused KAD-SIECOM of bias for refusing to act while the APC violate the election guidelines by conducting councillorship primary two day after the expiration of the approved timeline.
“SIECOM is confused, they did not put their house in order, otherwise they will not be coming to the public and ridiculing themselves.
“The guideline they gave us indicates that primaries ends by 27th and today is 29th and APC is just conducting primaries, you see, which law, which guideline are they using?
“The law is clear, any party that does not met the basic requirements to participate in an election, should be disqualified. We have so many issues with the election, look at even the fees chargeable at this material time.
“If you have to participate in this election as a councillor, you have to pay over N480,000 and you will pay tax also. So you can see they don’t want to give room to people who are read to participate in the election.”
He vowed that all the opposition political parties will challenge the electoral commission if they go ahead and conduct the election without adequately addressing all the issues raised.
In his response, KAD-SIECOM Head of Public Education, John Bulus, sometimes, a forum of political parties had written to SIECOM asking for an extension of time for the primaries, and the commission in its wisdom granted it.
He said that has nothing to do with the date of the election, adding “for instance, if the date for closing is 27th and ask for extension and we gave three days extension, it has nothing to do with the date actually announced for the election.”
Earlier, Executive Director, LEAD-Nigeria, Rebecca Sako-John, had raised concerns over the issue of disenfranchising registered voters who are yet to get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC).
“Just last week, SIECOM mentioned that only those with PVCs will be allowed to vote and that raised a concern in the sense that those who have been registering who have not gotten their PVCs will not vote.
“You can see that some people are going to be disenfranchised. We are also aware that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), will commence distribution of PVCs in middle of May, and middle of May will be after the Kaduna LG election.
“And we felt this could be an avenue to resolve some of these issues, that is the primary reason for this meeting, but in our previous meetings, there has been concerns about electoral voting materials and other things.
“So we want to know, is there a coordination between the two election management bodies to ensure that this LG election go well, or is SIECOM doing its own not minding INEC? Because when you ask them anything about voters register, tell you is INEC responsibility.”
The meeting was well attended by representatives of different political parties, civil society organizations, interested citizens, security agencies and the media.
