No plan to amend LG electoral law – Kaduna Assembly

Kaduna State House of Assembly on Wednesday denied any plan to amend the state Local Government Areas Electoral Law, ahead of the council elections fixed for Oct. 19.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had, at a news conference, alleged that the state government was planning to amend the said law through the back door.

But the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Mr. Henry Marah, at a news briefing in Kaduna, said there was nothing related to the amendment of electoral law mentioned in the order paper for Oct. 9.

“We did not discuss anything outside the order paper and as you can all see, there is nothing related to electoral law amendment in the order paper we have done since the July judgment of the Supreme Court on financial autonomy to local governments.

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“All we try to do in the amendment was the removal of the use of electronic voting machines due to short notice we had for the election.

“The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), by virtue of their voters’ registration, increased the number of polling units across the state and then the state at that time was not prepared to go and get the machines,” he said.

The lawmaker stated that all members of the assembly were duty bound to serve and represent their constituency and as such, would not do anything that was against the interest of the people.

According to him, government has never interfered with the activities of the house, adding that the lawmakers do not fear or favour anyone.

Marah urged the public, especially the politicians involved in the forthcoming LG elections to disregard such allegations and go about their campaigns, emphasizing that the elections would be free and fair.

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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the Kaduna PDP had raised allegation to the effect that some state officials were planning to hijack the appointment of both the ward and local government returning/collation officers for the elections.

The Chairman of PDP in the state, Mr Edward Masha, was equally quoted to have alleged that some top officials of the state were likely to be involved in manipulating the outcome of the exercise.