The National Chairman of the proscribed United Progressives Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas, has expressed dismay over the proscription order slammed on the party by the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying it does not comply with the established guidelines.
In a statement made available to Sunday Sun, Okorie said, “UPP and its leadership were taken aback by the unwarranted deregistration of 74 political parties including our party. INEC officials visited our National Secretariat on verification exercise where they confirmed that our well appointed National Secretariat met all the criteria of functionality.
“They commended it as belonging to the first six political party national secretariats in all considerations. Our National Executive Committee members from 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT were on hand with all the verification and identification requirements. These are the major requirements of the amended Electoral Act for a political party to remain on the register of political parties.
“The other requirements include winning any election in a general election or winning the Chairman or Councillor in a state local government election etc. Over 30 states in Nigeria have not held their local government elections since the amended Electoral Act became operational before the obviously vexatious deregistration of political parties.