North West PDP okays boycott of Jigawa council polls
From Saxone Akhaine,Kaduna
MEMBERS of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Jigawa State have received the nod of their North West zonal leaders to boycott the local council polls holding today.
The party chieftains have also asked the Jigawa State government to shelve the polls and enact an electoral law that conforms to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution before going ahead with the exercise.
The state government is using the Electoral College system for the polls but the state chapter of the PDP is contesting the action at the Court of Appeal.
In a statement yesterday in Kaduna, the PDP North West Vice Chairman, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, described the Jigawa electoral law as obnoxious and against the nation's constitution.
He, therefore, asked the state government to postpone the polls to enable the Appeal Court decide on its pleas.
Mohammed pointed out that the deficiency of the Jigawa State Electoral Law had been confirmed by an earlier order of the High Court, which ruled that the elections be stopped until a proper electoral law was made.
He asked the state government to revert to the model of electoral law, which conforms to the constitution.
Said Mohammed: "It would only amount to an affront on the tenets of the rule of law if the Jigawa State Independent Electoral Commission goes ahead with the elections in spite of the appeal. "And we find it inconceivable for JSIEC to insist on going ahead with the elections in the face of clear and obvious irregularities and abnormalities in the electoral law as upheld by the earlier High Court injunction."
He declared, "any election held under the current electoral law which parades the existing local councils and the unrecognised so-called 10 delegates, can only amount to a sham and a nullity and therefore totally unacceptable to PDP."
Mohammed said that the PDP in the zone had endorsed the position of the party chairman in Jigawa State, Alhaji Alto Usman Roni, that all its candidates and supporters to boycott the exercise.
Mohammed appealed to PDP members in the state to remain calm and law-abiding in the face of the unwarranted provocation. "Our confidence in the sanctity of the constitution, the electoral law and all other democratic institutions and instruments is firm and unshaken; and we also use this medium to remind all concerned in this matter that any election in this zone, without the participation of PDP will be nothing but a grand sham and cannot stand the test of time."
The PDP vice chairman, also urged Governor Saminu Turaki "to stop interfering in the affairs of the state electoral commission".
Besides the PDP, nine parties are participating in the polls. They are the Alliance for Democracy (AD), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), National Conscience Party (NCP), National Democratic Party (NDP), Peoples Redemption Party (CPR), Peoples Solidarity Party (PSP), United Nigeria Peoples Party (UNPP) and the Party for Socialist Democracy (PSD).
