APC may not participate in Enugu LG polls-ENSIEC

 

.We’re ready for the excercise-Ajogwu

 

COSMAS CHUKWU, Enugu

 

The internal crisis rocking the Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC May prevent them from participating in the forthcoming local government elections.

 

The Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission Chairman, Chief Mike Ajogwu, SAN, who dropped the hint in an exclusive interview with the Daily Champion said all necessary preparations have been made to ensure a hitch–free exercise.

 

According to him, “they (members of APC) told me that the dispute might be resolved before February, 4th and I had issued application forms to both factions of the party. As it is, they were not very sure of their candidates. Very few of their candidates completed the forms and returned them, others failed to complete and return as directed so as to qualify for the election.

 

“Our duty is to inform the political party of their candidates who qualify by their compliance and those who are not qualified by their non-compliance. We do not disqualify anybody; we just declare the state of fact: qualified or unqualified”.

 

He added that if the APC failed to resolve their issues, invariably they may not participate in the election. “If they do not resolve their dispute, they will hold themselves responsible for the consequences.”

 

On the level of its preparedness for the exercise, he said: “We are fully prepared for it, we have done voter mobilization and voter sensitization in all the Local Government Areas of Enugu State, and we have 68 permanent mobilizers in the 17 Local Governments that is four per Local Government Area, LGA. These mobilizers are called Electoral Officers A.E.Os.”.

 

“We have had so many lectures and conferences with political parties, general public and other stakeholders.

 

“On the way forward, we have assured all political parties that we are going to deal with them on a level playing ground; no concessions to any political party and we have advised them to go to the field and do their campaigns so that some people may like them and vote for them.

 

“We equally assured them that like the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, we don’t favour any political party. And anybody who sits down to say that the ruling party got all the votes the last time and refused to campaign, that party will hold themselves responsible.

 

“As a matter of fact, we have made them to understand that if they sit down and do nothing, that there is no theory in democratic politics that advocates  sharing of victory. Our duty as an electoral empire is to organize a free, fair election and whoever wins will be declared the victor”, he stated.

 

Allaying the usual fears of dearth of electoral materials, their arrival  and availability  at the pertinent places and time, the  SAN said “We promise all stakeholders and political parties that materials needed for the election will be at the designated places at the stipulated time.”

 

He also assured the voters of adequate security during the exercise, “We equally made them to understand that all civil security apparatus are with us and are ready to provide security of votes, lives and properties.”

 

Chief Ajogwu declared that “ENSIEC under my watch has handled voter education so nicely that there is going to be large voter turnout. It is our hope that voter apathy will be in the minimal.”

 

Asked whether there is any legal impediment or law suit that can jeopardize the holding of election as schedule, he said: “to the best of my knowledge there is no suit pending against us. If any suit rears its head up, it will be an affront to the law of the land; interpretation of which by the Supreme Court of Nigeria is that there should be no space again of a new and incoming council and the time an outgoing council will be vacating office so as to avoid the creation of a Caretaker Committee which the Supreme Court of Nigeria has declared illegal, null and void.

 

“The Court cannot tell us ‘don’t leave any space for Caretaker Committee and at the same breath say, ‘hold on the election until other irrelevancies are considered, without providing the means by which that tenure can be extended legally.”

 

On whether they have enough manpower within ENSIEC to prosecute the election or would he be resorting to the use of ad-hoc staff, the ENSIEC helmsman said that they have advertised for ad-hoc staff to complement the work of ENSIEC staff.

 

“Throughout the state, we have about 3,000 polling booths and nobody can expect my staff to man 3,000 booths by themselves.”

 

On the number of participating parties in the election, Chief Ajogwu disclosed that “so many parties applied; those who effectively indicated interest were 17 but those who actually meant business followed the guidelines and submitted the necessaries are 10 while the other 7 only wrote ineffective papers to ENSIEC not supported by any facts or figures demanded by the law.”

 

However, he said that “they still have some days within which they will receive our report about those who are qualified and those who are not qualified for them to replace them and send those who are qualified. In fact we are sending out the report today.”