The Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission( KWSIEC) has explained the reason it exempted Offa Local Government from the electioneering contest.
The electoral body debunked insinuations that it denied the Peoples Democratic Party( PDP) in Offa local government area of the state the opportunity to participate in the council poll coming up across the state on November 18,2017.
The body described as misleading and mischievous, a report credited to a national daily, that PDP was denied opportunity of participating in the contest
The commission in a statement personally signed by its chairman, Dr Usman Ajidagba said, ” we are constrained to make some clarifications on the issue which has not only been mischievously presented to the public but which has also been twisted to blackmail the commission”.
It added: “The truth of the matter is that the commission held series of meetings with the representatives of all registered political parties in Kwara state during which guidelines and timetable were distributed to all of them In the meetings, specific emphasis was laid on the time frame for party primaries, collection, and submission of both data and nomination forms, in line with the provisions of the extant laws.
” We have the accurate record of all the participants as well as what transpired.With particular reference to the allegation made by a group of people who claimed to be members of PDP, we wish to state that a member of the caretaker committee of PDP in Kwara state, one Sulaiman Abubakar Danseko in company of their administrative secretary, one Alhaji Maiyaki, came to the commission to collect data forms for the party. That time, a total of 16 were collected for the chairmanship and 193 copes for the councillorship seats in the state
“On 19th September, which was the last day for submission of both the data and nomination forms, same Abubakar Danseko and some other officials of PDP came to the commission and submitted nomination forms in respect of only 12 chairmanship and 136 councillorship positions. They said that was all the forms they had to submit. All the nomination forms for 12 chairmanships and 136 councillorship positions were duly returned as at 12 midnight on 19/9/2017. On the whole, no data or nomination form was returned to the commission in respect of Offa LGA, either for councillorship or chairmanship positions.
“As at 3.35am on Wednesday, 20/9/2017, the same Abubakar Danseko, Maiyaki and the Secretary of the caretaker committee of PDP were in the commission collating and sorting all their forms earlier submitted. It is therefore disheartening that an individual or group whose party did not submit completed nomination forms to the commission to allege it’s exclusion or denial to contest in the election in any LGA, including Offa.”
