From Mohammed Nasir Shuaibu BAUCHI
The Bauchi State chapter of the Social Democratic Party SDP has called on federal government and stakeholders for the scrapping of all State Indepenent Electoral Commission and allow INEC to take over.
Accordingly, the party also announced its boycotting in the forthcoming Local Government Elections which was scheduled on 18th August, 2024 in the state.
This was made known to journalists by the Secretary of the party Comrade Nasiru DanBauchi at a press conference, Friday in Bauchi, noted that the Bauchi State Independent Electoral Commission BASIEC is not ready to conduct free, fair and credible elections in the state.
According to him, said “the BASIEC has contravention and breach of the extant provisions of the 2008 Electoral Law of the State particularly in part, 2, section 23 (g) – (h) is collecting non-refundable fee of N200, 000 from Deputy Chairmanship candidate’s who are only to be nominated by the chairmanship candidates and not to be subjected to any separate monetary demands.
He explained that the BASIEC in the purported plans for the Local Government elections has demonstrated a clear-cut breach of the provisions of the State Electoral Law and it’s own guidelines for the election. Adding that many
political party’s are denied full texts of the electoral guidelines to enable them to select right candidates for the elections.
“for instance, in the Schedule of Activities of the State Electoral Law and it’s own guidelines for the election. For instance, in the Schedule of Activities for 17th August 2024 regarding conduct of the election which the SDP sighted somewhere, BASIEC, on scheduled.
The Party also alleged that the BASIEC is collecting N50, 000, N30, 000 and N20, 000 from the contestants as administrative charges for the job which the staff of the Commission are paid to do with tax payers’ money, saying this is outright extortion! It is aimed at frustrating and disssuading people from contesting or taking part in the elections.
“let me unequivocally say that, we in the SDP are not participating in the so-called election because we sensed and saw all these irregularities coming. But as a registered political party in Nigeria and a major critical stakeholders in Nigeria’s political process, we therefore, condemn this act in totality.
“In fact, we wish to use this opportunity to call on the federal government, the National Assembly and all the relevant stakeholders in Nigeria’s electoral process to expedite action in scrapping all State Independent Electoral Commission, SIEC, so that a more neutral body such as INEC can be made to take over the conduct of Local Government Elections in Nigeria.
