The Support Youth Coalition of the All Progressives Congress ( APC) in Kogi State, has threatened to drag the Independent National Electoral Commission[INEC], to court over what it termed the deliberate action of the electoral body, to exclude the party from participating in the Senatorial re-run election in two, out of the three senatorial districts in the state.
The said re-run elections which were held last Saturday, 20th February, were however, declared inconclusive by INEC.
In a statement signed by Yusuf Achacha, the group’s Chairman, it argued that the exclusion of APC from participating in the Kogi senatorial re-run elections “remains an unfortunate as well as questionable action on the part of INEC because the electoral umpire has no legal jurisdiction to expunge APC from the race, thereby employing a deliberate sell out of the Kogi senatorial re-run to the opposition party”.
The statement added that “the judgment of the appeal court, upon which INEC claims to have acted, did not in any way and manner imply or direct the electoral umpire to extricate APC from the Kogi senatorial re-run election.
“The wisdom behind INEC’s action against APC still remains a mystery to well meaning members of the party and other concerned Nigerians. The election had been conducted as stipulated by the electoral body and APC was not given any fair hearing hitherto in participating in the Kogi senatorial re-run.
The youth however affirmed their support for the party’s leadership saying that “we know and strongly believe the leadership of our party, the APC cannot in anyway be a saboteur to her own efforts by dashing out victories to the opposition parties in the senatorial re-run over the inability of the Party’s leadership in approaching the courts for redress against INEC submission.
“Our teeming supporters in Kogi state under the leadership of Alhaji Yahaya Bello, Executive Governor of Kogi state, have been terribly shocked over the non-inclusion of our party by INEC and also by the inaction and stance of our National Working Committee(NWC) , abnitio, to make a statement concerning the faith of APC in the state with regards to this matter .We urge our supporters to remain peaceful , law abiding and patient in the face of these challenges and intimidation”, the youth said.
It posited that party members in Kogi State are wondering why the APC’s National leadership has been taciturn and unwilling to take the matter to any court of competent jurisdiction. It called on the party’s national Chairman, Chief John Oyegun and the National Working Committee (NWC),to emulate what the coalition has concluded plans to do, by challenging the illegal action of INEC in a court of competent jurisdiction.
It pleaded that the “Appeal Court Judgment might have disqualified the candidature of Senators Mohammed Ohaire, Abdulrahman Abubakar and others of the APC but this shouldn’t be an indirect extermination of substituting the second runner up of APC senatorial primary election by the Party’s leadership piloted by our National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun”.
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