Political parties challenge credibility of Kano State council poll

No fewer than 29 political parties in the country yesterday challenged the credibility of last Kano council poll conducted by Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC).

The political parties in their unanimous submission, insisted that the conduct of the council election were flawed with irregularity including underage voting.The parties, at an interactive session organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) committee on alleged underage voting in the last February 10 council poll in Kano, submitted more evidence to back the claim of underage voting.

The political parties present at the forum include PDP, APC, ADP, Green Party and a host of others.Speaking with journalists after the meeting, state deputy chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Shehu Na’Allah explained that the party has submitted more evidence-based footage to substantiate cases of underage voting in Kano.

Na’Allah who claimed there were clear cases of irregularities before and during the election, said KANSIEC lacked the onus to prove the credibility of the poll.Although Na’Allah said PDP refused to take part in the conduct for legal reason, he maintained that the party can boldly summit that “there was no election in Kano.”    

The Chairperson of Abundant Nigerian Renewal Party (ANRP), Semira Abubakar revealed that evidence available to her party clearly indicated gross violation of electoral process. The former state chairman of APC and leader of Kwankwasiyya group in Kano, Haruna Umar Doguwa, chided Kano State’s claim that the footage of underage voting were extraction exercise conducted by INEC in 2015.

Meanwhile, INEC said yesterday in Abuja, that it has found some ineligible persons who have been registered in the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise in Taraba State.This was contained in a statement signed by Fabian Yame Vwamhi, Head of Department, Voter Education and Publicity, Taraba State office.

The statement read: “Following its laid down process, the  INEC, Taraba State office, has discovered that some ineligible persons have been registered in the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise.’’

“This is not only contrary to INEC guidelines for registration but it is also a violation of electoral act.” said the statement. Consequently, the commission said it has taken steps to “query the electoral officers as well as the registration officer of the registration centre, inform the commission’s headquarters in Abuja and drawn the attention of the security agencies for further investigation and possible prosecution of all found to have been involved including INEC staff.”

Just last week,  the commission announced the removal of 229 names of aliens from its voter register.Yesterday’s disclosure did not however, state the category of the undeserving registrants but INEC said it’s guiding principles remain sacrosanct hence the discovery.