Confusion has continued to trail the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Kogi State chapter, following allegations from some political parties that their formation is illegal and unconstitutional.
This came barely 24 hours of inauguration of the new interim committee on Wednesday in Lokoja, Kogi State capital.
The Kogi State Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji Mouktar Atimah who expressed dismay over the election of Illyas Badanga as interim chairman of IPAC, described it as a charade and. He said the election should be disregarded by all political stakeholders in the state.
Atimah, who maintained that the election that brought Badanga lacked merits, said the embattled chairman is a member of DPC which has already been deregistered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The SDP chairman who wondered when Badanga joined Zenith Labour Party, described the new executive of IPAC as a brain child of the Kogi State government.
He equally maintained that the purportedly elected State Secretary of IPAC, Ahmadu Usman, had been expelled from the SDP, and as such he could not have been in the IPAC new executive as a member of the SDP.
The SDP chairman added that the new IPAC Exco is a ploy to hoodwink the opposition political parties in the state.
He stated that for the election of this importance, some people would just constitute themselves into a clog in the wheel of progress of the parties as no party executive in the state was consulted before the kangaroo election.
In a swift reaction, the embattled chairman of IPAC, Iiyas Badanga described the SDP chaiman as a drowning man in SDP.
According to him, Atimah is not the recognized chairman of the Social Democratic Party in Kogi State, admonishing him to go and reconcile with the recognized chairman of his party.
“Our attention has been drawn to a press statement by one Muktar Atima of SDP discrediting our election as new interim IPAC state exco.
“We see it as the ranting of a political terrorist who takes pride in hooliganizing every action of his.
“If our position to move Kogi State forward is his own idea of our been agent of state government then he is enemy of progress.
“As Kogi citizens, it is our duty to partner with the state government to move the state forward. We owe the state the moral obligation to engage it constructive criticism and not constitute ourselves to agents of destruction.
“Inter party advisory council was a formation of all registered political parties in Nigeria to work hand in hand with INEC because of their symbiotic relationship during and after elections.
“74 political parties were deregistered due to non compliance to INEC rules and regulations that registered those parties and therefore deregistered. In view of the above, the remaining 18 political parties formed an interim caretaker because the terms of leadership of those holding positions has not elapsed.
“All the 18 registered political parties had authentic list of there chairmen in INEC office, the chairman that participated in the nomination of the interim committee were all verified by INEC and supervised and the nomination of the interim committee for the next five months when proper elections shall be held.
“Alhaji Amodu Usman is the congress chairman known to INEC and his name is clearly written as the chairman of Social Democratic Party, SDP.
“Mukhtar Atimah is not the chairman of SDP recognized by INEC. He should stop opening his mouth to condemn what 18 political parties has put in place.
“I was the state chairman of Democratic People’s Change, DPC, but when DPC was deregistered there was an opening in Zenith Labour Party, ZLP which I capitalized, and was nominated to complete my term of leadership.
“The government has no hand in the nominated interim committee of IPAC. Atimah should not speculate what he knows nothing about,” he averred.
It would be recalled that on Wednesday in Lokoja, Ilyas Badanga of Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) allegedly emerged chairman of IPAC while Ahmodu Usman of SDP became Secretary.
Others are Onaji James, Action Alliance, AA, Publicity Secretary, Muhammed Kabir, People’s Democratic Party, PDP Treasurer, Ibrahim Usman, Labour Party, LP, Financial Secretary, Haj. Jumai Isah, National Rescue Movement, NRM, Organizing Secretary and Ojima Onaji, NNPP, Youth Policy Adviser
