The All Progressives Congress, APC, has accused the Enugu State Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) of deliberately excluding it from the February 23 Local Government Area election, despite the submission of the party’s candidate to commission
The APC alleged that the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission, (ENSIEC), has in a deliberate plot to scheme it out of the election, refused to publish the names of its 17 chairmanship and 260 Councillorship candidates, which it forwarded to it since December 2021 for the election,
The APC, therefore, threatened that it will challenge the outcome of the election if it holds as scheduled out its candidates.
Addressing the disenfranchised candidates and other party faithful at the state secretariat in Enugu, during the weekend, the party’s state chairman, Mr. Ugochukwu Agballah said: “Enugu must rise for democracy to thrive. There is no democracy in Enugu state; it’s been a government of cronyism and elitism…on Wednesday (February 23) the local government election will not be held; if they go ahead, it will be an exercise in futility,” he declared.
Agballah, who was issued with his Certificate of Return, last week as the authentic APC chairman in the state, announced that the legal team of the party, led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, had already filed a suit at the State High Court to void the election for unlawful exclusion, which he said was a breach of the Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act.
The APC chairman accused the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, government in the state of colluding with some unscrupulous elements in the APC to manipulate ENSIEC in order to frustrate APC from participating in the council poll.
“ENSIEC disenfranchised all our candidates. We had our primaries to elect our chairmanship and councillorship candidates on December 18 and 19, 2021. We submitted the list to ENSIEC, which it accepted. But ENSIEC decided to publish the list submitted by Ben Nwoye, a former suspended Caretaker Chairman of APC.
“ENSIEC knows Ben Nwoye is no longer the chairman. We had written a series of letters to ENSIEC with an avalanche of evidence to show that I’m the duly elected chairman of the APC in our October 16, 2021 state congress, but ENSIEC, led by Chief Mike Ajogwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), playing the script of the PDP-led government and in collaboration with some rogue elements in APC, decided to engage in mischief, by excluding APC from the poll. This is what they have been doing in the past, which is why APC has never won any election in the state.
“But good news is that the state executive committee of the party today empowered me to void that election. I have done that before in 2007. They can use ENSIEC but we have already filed a lawsuit to void the election. Disenfranchising our candidates and excluding our party completely negates the 1999 Constitution, which guaranteed our right to contest elections. They made a big mistake.
“Any money spent by ENSIEC in the conduct of the sham election will be reimbursed to the last Kobo to the coffers of Enugu state or I drag them to the EFCC. We will drag Ajogwu (ENSIEC chairman) to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee and all the foreign embassies in Nigeria; for a senior lawyer like him to collude with anti-democratic forces to sabotage democracy in Enugu state. He will be held accountable,” Agballah declared.
Meanwhile, Enugu State Government has declared February 23 work-free day to enable residents vote for their choice candidates in the Local Government election.
This is contained in a statement on Sunday in Enugu by the Special Adviser to the governor on Information, Mr Steve Oruruo.
