21 PARTIES TO CONTEST EKITI’S JUNE GOVERNORSHIP POLL •AS LP,APC IN VERBAL WAR OVER 18 ARRESTED ALLEGED MERCENARIES No fewer than 21 political parties will participate in the Ekiti governorship election coming up on June 21. The Ekiti State office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)announced this in a statement in Ado-Ekiti at the weekend.Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) on the list, the spokesman of the commission in the state, Taiwo Gbadegesin, said the list might not be final as some more might still show interest while some that had already indicated interest might choose to opt out. He said INEC would not give special preference to any of the political parties,saying a level playing ground would be accorded all of them in every of its activities and actions. The political parties are: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP),All Progressives Congress (APC), Alliance for Democracy (AD), All Progressive Ground Alliance (APGA) and Accord Party. Also on the list are: National Conscience Party(NCP), Social Democratic Party (SDP),United Progressive Party (UPP), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and Africa Democratic Congress (ADC). The rest are: Peoples Democratic Movement(PDM), Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA),Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Alliance Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD),Action Alliance (AA), United Democratic Party (UDP), African Peoples Alliance (APA)and Citizens Popular Party (CPP). NAN reported that INEC has fixed April 14 as the last date for conduct of party primaries, during which candidates of all participating parties are expected to emerge. Meanwhile, the Labour Party in Ekiti State on Sunday said the All Progressives Congress (APC) was wrongly accusing it of allegedly perpetrating fraud in the continuous voter registration exercise by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) preparatory to the June 21 governorship election in the state.The party, according to a statement by its chairman in the state, Mr Akin Omole,denied the allegation that his party manipulated the process, saying “those detained over allegation that they were imported from the neighbouring Ondo State to register in Ekiti had been identified to be indigenes of the state.”Omole contended that it was “never a criminal offence or breach of Electoral Act for indigenes of a state to make efforts to partake in the electoral process in his home state,” saying “no law compels anybody to register in his state of residence.”He stated that “police investigations revealed that the suspects were indigenes of Ekiti State and had been released based on these findings and said the APC must “refrain from acting in a manner capable of painting Ekiti indigenes as criminals.”Omole said “the allegation has further confirmed that the APC is jittery and had seen defeat staring it in the face,” and urged the members of the public to“discountenance the allegation that LP was responsible for the importation of mercenaries but the APC should rather be held accountable for raising false alarm.” But the APC said the police must be commended for arresting the suspects and insisted that they were non-indigenes imported by the Labour Party to perpetrate fraud in the state. In a statement signed on behalf of the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation by Mr Dimeji Daniels, the APC said “the campaign organisation said it was most unpatriotic of Bamidele to team up with non-Ekitis to scuttle the peace in the state.” Daniels said: “While commending the police for nabbing the ‘mercenary voters’, the organisation said all security agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must rise up to ensure that Mr Opeyemi Bamidele’s desperate tactics are curtailed before he sets Ekiti on fire.” Ekiti 2014: PDP aspirants agree, sign undertaking over consensus •I’m not part of consensus arrangement –Fayose Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirants in Ekiti at the weekend, signed an undertaking to support anyone of them chosen by the leadership of the party as the PDP standard bearer in the June 21 governorship election in the state. This is just as it has been gathered that barring any last minute change, the candidate of the PDP for the election would be announced by Wednesday.Sources at a meeting held by the PDP Presidential Consensus Committee headed by a chieftain, Chief Olabode George, with the governorship aspirants in Abuja on Saturday night, said PDP National Chairman,Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, would announce the party’s choice as consensus candidate among the 14 aspirants within 48 hours. A source in the meeting said: “All of us the aspirants in the meeting signed an undertaking that whoever among us that emerges as the candidate would get the support of all the others. All of us signed an undertaking except one who came late because he said he was ill.” The source added that Brigadier General Oladehinde Arogbofa (retd), who is the Chief of Staff to the President, was said to have represented the Presidency at the meeting, and added that the meeting was on the insistence of President Goodluck Jonathan on consensus for the selection of the party’s candidate.” The source claimed that the reason for the insistence on consensus “was corroborated by other security reports and it was targeted at staving off crisis in the party to ensure it was well-positioned to win the election.” Meanwhile one of the leading aspirants in the party and former governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayo Fayose, has said that he would not be part of any consensus arrangement. Fayose who stated this through his spokesman, Mr Idowu Adelusi in Ado Ekiti on Sunday, said consensus is another form of imposition especially when not all aspirants consented to it.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 15:44:02 +0000
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