National Vice President of Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, Comrade Kehinde Taiga, has said that political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should abide by the constitution guiding the practice of activities in the parties.
He said a situation whereby parties must have concluded all preparations for elections, including selling of forms and screening aspirants for party primaries and somebody from nowhere will just emerge and destabilize an already established system should not be discouraged.
Taiga may be referring to the Edo state situation where Governor Godwin Obaseki was disqualified by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and he quickly moved into the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and destabilize the system which has already been put in place in order to have access into the party to contest the governorship election.
He said any aspirant that does not purchase form at the stipulated time should not be allowed to cause trouble in the party. He insisted that it is wrong for somebody to emerge from nowhere and be given waivers when the time had elapsed. This, according to him, is bad.
He said these things are done because so much money must have been given to some party bigwigs from another state and the slot of people who have the state at heart is given to some desperate politicians who want to rule by all means.
Hence, he said these politicians do not have the interest of the Nigerian people at heart but selfish interest to protect and safeguard their empires.
He said the laws are only made for the poor people and not for the big politicians who can buy their way with bags of money. He said party constitutions are not recognized or waived when it affects big members of the party.
The human rights activist said money meant for the masses in this case is shared to some political leaders who are only there to amass wealth at the expense of the people. He called on the Nigerian people to be wise and vote with courage and not allowed little money to affect their decisions.
He said the party constitution should be restructured in a way that waivers are not allowed and that as soon as deadlines have passed, forms have been purchased and aspirants cleared and screened, the process should be sealed.
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