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From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
The hope of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to participate in the February 3 rerun election in Plateau has been dashed following the exclusion of the party from the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
INEC had scheduled re-run election for Plateau North Senatorial District and Jos North/Bassa federal constituency on Saturday following the sack of PDP lawmakers by the Court of Appeal
INEC Commissioner for Plateau, Benue, and Nasarawa States, Mallam Haruna Mohammed, told newsmen in Jos that PDP had been notified early by the INEC chairman during a meeting with political parties in Abuja that it would not be on the ballot as a result of the Appeal Court judgment, which sacked the elected PDP senatorial candidate, Senator Simon Mwadkwon, and member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Musa Agah.
‘We had a meeting with political parties right before now and told them that in a re-rurn disqualified candidate and political party cannot participated, this is an established law, the Supreme Court has ruled about it in Labour versus INEC several years ago, and PDP was a beneficiary of this at that time.
“INEC is a law-abiding institution. We call a meeting of all political parties; if the PDP went to court and the federal high court declined jurisdiction, what that simply means is that the ruling by the Court of Appeal subsists and we have to obey the court; our hands are tight in this regard”.
Earlier while speaking to newsmen at the venue of the distribution of the sensitive materials, the State Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, Mallam Abubakar Dogara, lampooned INEC for the sudden exclusion of the PDP from the ballot without prior notice.
Dogara explained that in the last of all political parties with INEC in Abuja, they were informed that any political party would be excluded, adding that what the INEC chairman told them was that the names of the participating parties would be sent to IPAC and each of the political parties.
“The position of the IPAC is that either the PDP participated in the election or all parties would not take part because the Appeal Court said all political parties should participate in the election. We noticed that one of us is not on the ballot papers, and therefore we sat down and agreed that an injury to one is an injury to all; therefore, if the PDP is not participating, no political party will participate.
‘We were not informed that one of us would not be part of the election; we were told that the list of parties that will take part in the election will be forwarded to us within a week,” he said.
The Chairman said that Plateau state needs peace and advised INEC not to do anything that will throw Plateau State into anarchy
He said, “We prefer peace on the Plateau to elections or anything; we know how fragile the issue of peace is on the Plateau; we are trying to avert anything that will take us to the doom days.”
Earlier there was a drama on Thursday at the headquarters of the Jos Central Bank when the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), in the state was missing from the ballot papers provided by INEC for the re-run elections.
The absence of the party’s name was discovered during an inspection of the sensitive election materials by party officials and INEC representatives.
The ballot papers displayed for the re-run at the CBN indicated that the PDP is not on the ballots, suggesting that the party is not participating in the elections.
John Akans, the state publicity secretary of PDP, who was present at the inspection venue, disagreed with the development, stating that his party would not accept it.
“We have identified you the National commissioner of INEC. Let us see how you are going to conduct these elections. You have been our problem in Plateau. You either go back or do the right thing. Don’t take us for granted in this country. You are perpetrating illegalities. Is that the oath of office you have taken? Is that what the constitution said ? Let us see how you will do it. You will meet us in the field,” Akans referring to the INEC National Commissioner, Muhammed Kudu Haruna, at the CBN.
