Enugu LG Polls: ENSIEC Dancing To The Tune Of PDP, APGA Alleges

The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Enugu state, yesterday, alleged that the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission, NSIEC,
was not fair to all political parties during the screening of chairmanship and councillorship candidates in the November 4 2017 local government elections in the state.

The state’s chairman of APGA, Mr Ken Ike, said the event was fraught with irregularities and extraneous conditions in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party. He mentioned such conditions to include ENSIEC’s demanding N10, 000 from the contestants which was never stated in the guidelines.

“Again ENSIEC demanded certificates of attendance of a workshop which it organized without prices attached until at the venue where it compelled chairmanship candidates to pay N50, 000; N30, 000 for vice chairmanship candidates, and N20, 000 for councillorship candidates.

Most candidates did not participate because of the cost. The third condition is tax clearance certificates. Most candidates are applicants and fresh graduates. They have not started earning any income. From decided cases, tax clearance certificates are not a prerequisite to contesting elections. That does not mean that any state chairmen of the parties advised any income earning candidate not to pay taxes. A situation where the electoral commission does not provide a level playing field for every candidate does not augur well for the state. The election will likely be fraught with petitions.”

Ike claimed that PDP candidates were not subjected to the same conditions: “This implies that the PDP wants to scheme out other parties. In fact, ENSIEC is the third arm of the PDP in Enugu state.”