Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has threatened that all parties in Plateau State will withdraw from participating in tomorrow’s re-run election in Plateau North Senatorial zone and Jos North/Bassa Federal constituency following the exclusion of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the ballots.
But the All Progressives Congress (APC) has swiftly reacted to IPAC’s position stating clearly that it will not withdraw, describing IPAC’s action as throwing caution overboard.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on Thursday defended the exclusion of PDP from the ballots in the re-run election, saying the disqualified party and its candidates are not fit to participate in the polls.
According to INEC National Commissioner in charge of the North-Central geopolitical zone, Mohammed Haruna, during the inspection of sensitive materials for the elections, in Jos, the commission held a meeting with political parties where it told them that disqualified parties and candidates would not participate in the election.
He said, “We had a meeting with political parties right before now and told them that in a rerun, disqualified candidates and political parties cannot participate, this is an established law, the Supreme Court has ruled about it in Labour versus INEC several years ago and the PDP was a beneficiary of this several years ago.
“INEC is a law-abiding institution; we never flaunt any law. We called a meeting of all political parties on this subject. 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 tied by the court in this regard.
“What the court said is what we are going to do whether it is right or wrong unless it is set aside”, he maintained.
But reacting to INEC’s position, IPAC in the state through its chairman, Abubakar Dogara, said, “The position of IPAC is that it is either PDP participates in the election or all parties will not take part because the Court of Appeal 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 PDP is not participating, no political party will participate.”
Dogara said, “INEC during its meeting did not inform us that one of us would not be part of the elections; we were told that the list of parties that will take part in the election would be forwarded to us within a week, that was on the 9th of January but we never got that list till now, just two days to the election.
“We prefer peace on the Plateau rather than 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”, he stressed.
But APC in a press statement said IPAC is on its own on the matter as it does not hold the same position.
The statement signed by APC state Publicity Secretary, Sylvanus Namang said, For the avoidance of doubt, APC hereby totally and unequivocally dissociates itself from the position of IPAC which is purportedly given on behalf of all political parties in the state.
“We see the so-called press briefing by the IPAC Chairman as self-serving and a mere expression of personal views which has no bearing on our position as a political party.
Namang said that IPAC Chairman’s statement smacks of contempt of court and an affront to the integrity of the judiciary as well as derogation of the constitutional role of the INEC.
He said that Dogara’s action was a manifest and gross betrayal of trust as there was no meeting where he discussed any form of boycott of elections.
“We want to dismiss his claim as that of a political merchant and a PDP apologist.”
He added that the PDP has also boasted that it must be on the ballot in the Saturday re-run election, calling on security agents to ensure that lawlessness does not prevail.
“We call on security agencies to provide adequate security to all INEC officials and ad hoc staff to be involved in the election to save us from the lawless PDP in Plateau State.
“We had warned before that all their claims of being on the ballot were an orchestrated plan to disrupt the election and cause anarchy and mayhem in the state. A stitch in time, we believe, saves nine”, Namang warned.
Seriki Samuel Adinoyi