From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State has berated the Abia State Independent Electoral Commission (ABSIEC) for disqualifying some of her candidates from contesting the forthcoming Local Government elections in the state.
This is even as the immediate past secretary of the party in the state, Perfect Okorie said ABSIEC’s action amounted to contempt of court.
An Abia High court sitting in Aba had penultimate week restrained ABSIEC from disqualifying any candidate of APC from contesting the election.
However, while the matter was still pending in court, ABSIEC went ahead to disqualify some chairmanship and councillorship candidates of APC.
The APC in a statement issued by its caucus public relations officer in Abia North Senatorial Zone, Chibuike Jonas, described the action as unconstitutional, stating it was dead on arrival.
Jonas said the action was a blatant abuse of the nation’s constitution which also brings to fore how biased Prof. Mkpa Agu Mkpa led ABSIEC is in carrying out its duty of conducting a free, fair credible election.
The statement read in part: “ABSIEC has once again showed not just Abians but Nigerians in general that they are not ready to conduct a free, fair and sincere election through the disqualification of some candidates of the APC.
“As party, we need to state categorically and to remind Prof. Mkpa and his team that ABSIEC has no right to disqualify any candidate.
“This is stated clearly in the provisions of sections 31(1) and 83 of the Electoral Act, which provided that INEC cannot disqualify or reject a candidate nominated by a political party for an election.
“We implore Prof. Mkpa and the entire ABSIEC to tow the path of honour by doing the right thing. However; the action is dead on arrival and a clear waste of time as our party will deploy every available legal arsenal within its power to ensure that such grievous anomaly is corrected.”
Those disqualified by ABSIEC are the chairmanship, deputy chairmanship and seven councillorship candidates for Aba South, while in Bende , the APC chairmanship and three councillorship candidates were disqualified.
In Ohafia the deputy chairmanship and six councillorship candidates were disqualified, while also in Umuahia , Obingwa and Isuikwuato, three , one and three councillorship candidates were disqualified respectively.
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Meanwhile, court yesterday vacated the interim order of injunction restraining ABSIEC from conducting the December 18, 2020 local government elections.
In vacating the order, Justice A. U. Kalu ordered that ABSIEC should make available relevant forms to political parties wishing to contest the local government elections without charging any refundable deposit.
Furthermore, the court ordered that ABSIEC should not exclude any candidate of the political parties from participating in the electoral process