{"id":2313,"date":"2013-04-18T00:41:06","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T00:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigeria-news\/aspirants-want-kogi-council-polls-stopped\/"},"modified":"2013-04-18T00:41:06","modified_gmt":"2013-04-18T00:41:06","slug":"aspirants-want-kogi-council-polls-stopped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/aspirants-want-kogi-council-polls-stopped\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspirants want Kogi council polls stopped"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Six councillorship aspirants on Wednesday dragged the Kogi State Independent Electoral Commission (KOSIEC) to court, seeking an order to stop the May 4 Local Government elections. The PDP Chairmanship aspirant for Omala Local Government, Labaran Oyigebe, and the Attorney-General of the state, were joined as co-defendants.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs, Akpa Salisu, Amodu Omada, Josiah Achimugu, Zackari Abubakar, Karim Paul and Onuh Abraham, contested in the March 15 PDP council primary elections in Omala council.<\/p>\n

They prayed the court to determine whether KOSIEC could validly conduct local government election in Omala Local Government as well as the entire 21 Local Government.<\/p>\n

In the originating summons, the plaintiffs argued that councillorship and chairmanship primaries were not conducted in Abejukolo ward 11, Bagaji, Bagana, Olla, Okpatala and Opada\/Ofejiji wards.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs asked the court to restrain KOSIEC from recognising the list of candidates sent to it by PDP.<\/p>\n

They alleged that the names were merely compiled by the party and submitted to the commission as supposed winners of the primaries that never held.<\/p>\n

They also sought an order restraining KOSIEC from rcognising the chairmanship candidate presented by the PDP for the Omala as well as conduct elections into the 21 Local Governments.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs also urged the court to determine whether KOSIEC could validly conduct council election in the state, having refused to display and publish copies of voters’ lists for verification.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs among other allegations on non-qualification of the commission to conduct the council polls averred that “KOSIEC is not properly constituted to conduct the May 4 elections.<\/p>\n

“KOSIEC tenure has since expired and is never renewed,\u2019\u2019 they claimed.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs further alleged that the chairman of KOSIEC, Mr Abraham Olaniran, was a card-carrying member of the PDP.<\/p>\n

According to them, Olaniran has earlier contested the House of Assembly primaries to represent Kabba\/Bunu Constituency but lost.<\/p>\n

“Hence he cannot conduct free, fair and transparent elections in the 21 Local Governments,\u2019\u2019 they added.
The suit, which was before Justice Henry Olusuyi, had been fixed for April 22, for mention.<\/p>\n

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