The leadership of the Peoples Democratic party PDP kogi state chapter may be considering legal action against INEC over their failure to conduct a bye election of a unit in Ogori Magongo LGA in the re scheduled House of Assembly election.
This was disclosed yesterday in Magongo in Ogori Magongo local government Area of the state by the secretary of PDP Mr. Emmanuel Egwu when INEC failed to show up for a bye election ordered by the state and National Assembly election petitions tribunal.
Egwu noted with displeasure that in an election involving a unit with one ballot box which took INEC months to plan and still fail to conduct the election calls for questioning saying that the commission has failed the nation.
According to him the party will not accept the reasons given by the commission that some parties and their candidates names were omitted from the ballot papers stating that during the stake holders meeting they could not identified this challenge to the parties.
He lamented that the commission was playing with peoples destiny through their inefficiency which should not be allowed to continue.
He stated that his party has lost enormous human and material resources due to the postponement saying that the new date of Wednesday 22 February 2012 is unacceptable to the party since some civil servants who will be at their duty post may not be able to exercise their franchise.
” we held stake holders meeting with them , they did not tell us the development until the very day when all our supporters had converge at the polling unit as early as 7am just to say they have omitted party names.
When will INEC learn to do things rightly. The issue of legal action , iam not the party but if they consider the option I will support it ” he stated.
Speaking to the press a contestant on the platform of the PDP and whose election to the House of Assembly which the result of a unit was nullified by the tribunal Hon Gabriel Daudu said he was disappointed by the action of INEC which made him to lose enormous resources adding that the postponement was an added burden to him.
He alleged that the party in question the CPC ,APGA and NTP didn’t participate in the general election adding that his party contested against Labour Party , ACN and ANPP saying that he was surprised that INEC would say that the election will be postponed due to the ommission of these parties.
He however assured his supporters of victory no matter the postponement while calling on the election umpire to fix the election on weekend to enable civil servants to participate.
Also reacting the candidate of labour party Ayedu Babson Abiodun on whose petition the bye election was to hold stated that he was disappointed at INEC for despite all the assurances given could not put their acts together to conduct just a unit election.
He added that if the postponement was thé best for democracy he was alright but challenged them to fix a date that will be convenient to all the electorates.
It would be recalled that the Justice Celine Nweke led state and National Assemby petition tribunal had annuled the election of Hon. Gabriel Daudu of PDP representing Ogori Magongo constituency and ordered for a bye election in unit 003 Magongo ward.
Admitting it to be a technical error, the INEC spokesman in the state Alhaji Biambo Bagudu stated that the new date was to comply with the tribunal judgement
He added that the error was regrettable but has to be so to avoid litigation while calling on the parties and their supporters to come out en mass to vote for the candidate of their choice.
