Nigeria’s electoral management body, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has read what is described as Riot Act to politicians in Ekiti State, warning that they cannot allow the challenges that bedeviled them in Anambra State to repeat itself in Ekiti State.
INEC further warned all political parties in the state that they must register with them or be shut out from INEC activities towards the governorship election in 2014.
It condemned what it described as the lack of seriousness exhibited by the political parties in the state, on their refusal to submit their addresses, officers and schedule of their activities to it, saying by January, it would cease to grant recognition to parties that do not comply with the directive.
Speaking at the stakeholders’ forum, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in Ekiti State, Alhaji Halilu Pai, represented on the occasion by the Administrative Secretary of the commission, Mr. Femi Agboola, noted that “there are 20 registered political parties in Ekiti State out of the 25 registered with the national headquarters of INEC.”
He said: “INEC wrote a letter to all the political parties in Ekiti State in May 2013, requesting for information on their addresses, leadership and update on their statuses. But only a few of them have responded to the request. If the parties are not mischievous, what are they hiding?
“They should let us know where their offices are right from now so that as midwife, we will know the problems they are having, the challenges and how to overcome. They should not wait until the Election Day when they would come and cry foul. Somebody that is not known to us from time would come at
the nick of election to say ‘you are marginalized’. How do we do it? We cannot reach out to you to invite you for meetings, we cannot locate you when you want to conduct your primaries and the law says we should monitor your activities but we are unable to.”
The Ekiti REC warned that “once they are not recognized at this kind of forum, they will not be comfortable” and said the commission wants them to be comfortable because without them, election cannot hold.
On the Anambra governorship election experience, the commission said “we have learnt lessons which will guide us in our approach to the conduct of the 2014 election.”
The political parties present at the forum included All progressives Congress, APC, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Accord Party, AP, United Peoples Party, UPP, African Democratic Congress, ADC, KOWA Party, Mega Progressive Peoples Party, MPPP.