On Tuesday, the members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) paralyzed the activities of the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission after it excluded their candidates in the local government council election which is scheduled for Wednesday.
According to reports, the members carried placards with various inscriptions and marched through Okpara Square to the ENSIEC headquarters at Independence Layout.
They were heard chanting songs and obstructed traffic.
Some of the placards carried by the protesters read:
‘We say no to political disenfranchisement,’ ‘Our vote is our power,’ ‘Say no to election exclusion,’ ‘ENSIEC is not for a particular political party,’ among others.
Speaking to journalists, Mr Robert Ngwu, the leader of the protesters and Secretary of APC in the state, said the rally was meant to express their rejection of their exclusion from the election.
He said;
“We are here to tell the people of Enugu State that what is going on in ENSIEC is not good. We will go all the way to the Supreme Court because this election tomorrow (Wednesday) will be voided.
After all, you cannot exclude the candidates of APC and that is against the Constitution of Nigeria, 1999 amended, and also against the electoral act to exclude a political party.
“We have made our position known to them both in writing and also through the media and ENSIEC still insists on the election going on.
We can’t do anything but show our grievances to let the state know that what is going on is not right.
“This is a new APC and we’re here to compete with the ruling party in Enugu State. The list is supposed to be submitted by the chairman and secretary. But what happened is that the ENSIEC chose the APC list by themselves. They chose the list, not us. The candidates in the list they published are not our members.
“We have professors running for councillors in APC. We have a retired DSS Director running for the chairmanship in Isi-Uzo local government. So, how could those people not qualify? They didn’t show us the list in the first place even though we submitted their names and that’s what is going on.”
Addressing the protesters, Chairman of ENSIEC, Chief Mike Ajokwu (SAN) revealed that the reason for publishing the list of candidates submitted by the Ben Nwoye faction of the APC was because the commission has been relating with him over the years.
He added that APC has two factions and the commission wrote to the national secretariat of APC without a reply, a development that forced it to accept Nwoye’s list
However, as he was talking, the protesters shouted at him. He then walked out on them.
Credit: PUNCH
