The hope of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to participate in tomorrow’s re-run election in Plateau has been dashed, following the exclusion of the party from the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
INEC had scheduled re-run elections for Plateau North senatorial district and Jos North/Bassa federal constituency for tomorrow, following the removal of the PDP lawmakers by the Court of Appeal.
The INEC Commissioner for Plateau, Benue, and Nasarawa states, Haruna Mohammed, told newsmen in Jos that the PDP had been notified earlier by the INEC chairman during a meeting with political parties in Abuja that it would not be on the ballot as a result of the Appeal Court’s judgment, which sacked the elected PDP senatorial candidate, Simon Mwadkwon, and member of the House of Representatives, Musa Agah.
“We had a meeting with political parties before now, and told them that in a re-run, disqualified candidate and political party cannot participate. This is an established law, the Supreme Court has ruled about it in Labour Party versus INEC several years ago, and PDP was a beneficiary of this at that time.
“INEC is a law-abiding institution. We call a meeting of all political parties; if the PDP went to court and the Federal High Court declined jurisdiction, what that simply means is that the ruling by the Court of Appeal subsists and we have to obey the court; our hands are tied in this regard.”
Earlier while speaking to newsmen at the venue of the distribution of the sensitive materials, the State Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Abubakar Dogara, lampooned INEC for the sudden exclusion of the PDP from the ballot without prior notice.
Dogara said in the last meeting of all political parties with INEC in Abuja, what the INEC chairman told them was that the names of the participating parties would be sent to IPAC.
“The position of IPAC is that either the PDP participated in the election, or all parties would not take part because the Appeal Court said all political parties should participate in the election. We noticed that one of us is not on the ballot papers, and we sat down and agreed that an injury to one is an injury to all. Therefore, if the PDP is not participating, no political party will participate.
“We were not informed that one of us would not be part of the election; we were told that the list of parties that will take part in the election will be forwarded to us within a week,” he said.
The chairman said Plateau State needs peace and advised INEC not to do anything that will throw the state into anarchy.
Earlier, there was a drama, yesterday, at the headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the state when names of the PDP candidates in the state were missing from the ballot papers provided by INEC for the re-run elections.
The absence of the party’s name was discovered during an inspection of the sensitive election materials by party officials and INEC representatives. The ballot papers displayed for the re-run at the CBN indicated that the PDP is not on the ballots, suggesting that the party is not participating in the elections.
John Akans, the state publicity secretary of PDP, who was present at the inspection venue, disagreed with the development, stating that his party would not accept it.
“We have identified you (INEC National Commissioner, Muhammed Kudu Haruna). Let us see how you are going to conduct these elections. You have been our problem in Plateau. You either go back or do the right thing. Don’t take us for granted in this country. You are perpetrating illegalities.”
Is that the oath of office you have taken? Is that what the constitution said? Let us see how you will do it. You will meet us in the field,” Akans said.