Okonkwo Samuel
Enugu State based Constitutional Lawyer , Dr. Peter Aneke has described as baseless and unfounded, a letter circulating on the social media credited to Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Enugu State, claiming that 17 political parties out of 18 registeted political parties will boycott the forthcoming Enugu LG polls slated for Wednesday, 23/2/22 on alleged non compliance with the provisions of the law.
Dr. Aneke stressed that all the alleged grounds are wooly and unsupportable by any evidence, noting that the Notice and Guidelines for the election was published in official Gazette No. 6 vol. 30 dated 17/11/21
Dr. Aneke commended the Enugu State Government for the its resolve to conduct local government elections in the State, noting that it is in total compliance with the Supreme Court judgment forbidding the use of Caretaker Committees to run the affairs of the Local Government Councils.
He therefore urged the eligible voters to discountenance the rumours and move to their polling units to vote the candidates of their choice.
In the same vein, 74 political parties under the Inter Party Advisory Council Enugu State code named IPAC G74 have condemned the position of the 17 political parties which threatened to boycott the February 23 Enugu state LG election.
In a press release dated February 20, 2022, the IPAC G74, said the allegations made against the Enugu state Independent Electoral Commission, ENSIEC by the 17 political parties are false and should be disregarded. The 17 political parties had accused ENSIEC of flagrant violation of the election guidelines and called for boycott of the February 23 scheduled election.
But the IPAC G74 in disagreeing with their colleagues said, “we the G74 IPAC is by this release telling the general public to disregard that communique and throw every piece of information therein into the thrash as there is no iota of truth contained in it.
“We want to let you know that ENSIEC has been following the rule of law till date, all their allegations are false because they not only display their ignorance but proved to the world that they are incompetent and not on ground therefore and not worthy to be called or known as party chairman, their parties are as worthless as anything you can think of in this state since they can not field nor sponsor qualified candidates in an ordinary local government elections.”
The IPAC G74 also condemned the position of the state Chairman of APC, Chief Ugochukwu Agballa who threatened to use the court to stop the election.
G74 said they want the general public to know, “that ENSIEC is not biased, they gave everybody a level playing ground. ” It stated that IPAC is an advisory body and not an opposition or attack dog. “We want to also educate them that they have gone astray in IPAC code of conduct that their communique if taken up should amount to suspension of all of them”, and called on the national leadership of IPAC to “discipline and call them to order.”
AIF Media
