THE Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC), on Friday, October 25, affirmed its readiness to conduct local government elections across all the state’s 44 local government areas.
This followed a Kano State High Court ruling affirming its power to conduct the poll.
Speaking on the commission’s preparedness to conduct the election, scheduled for Saturday, October 26, KANSIEC’s chairman, Sani Malumfashi, a professor, said the commission would not tolerate any violations, including vote-buying, underage voting, or bribery of officials during the exercise.
The ICIR reported that a Federal High Court stopped the election from holding when it sacked the KANSIEC chairman and its members a few days before the poll.
The court, in its ruling, delivered by Simon Amobede, stated that the KANSIEC chairman and other members of the commission were card-carrying members of the ruling NNPP.
The court gave the ruling on Tuesday, October 22, while delivering judgment in a suit filed by Aminu Aliyu Tiga of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against KANSIEC, the state attorney general and commissioner for justice, Haruna Isa Dederi, and 14 others.
The judge added that KANSIEC could not validly and competently conduct local government elections in respect of 44 local governments in the state until and unless qualified persons are duly and legally appointed as chairman and members of the commission, in line with relevant extant law.
However, announcing its readiness for the election and also reacting to the state High Court ruling on Friday, the commission’s chairman, Malunfashi asserted that only the State High Court held jurisdiction over state and local government affairs.
He noted that the ruling dismissed any further legal challenges, encouraging all parties to respect the judgment.
“We already had a pre-existing order restraining any individual or group from disrupting our constitutional mandate, and from truncating the electoral process.
“In the language of that judgement, KANSIEC has the mandate to conduct and declare election results and has requested police as critical stakeholders to maintain the security of the entire process.
“As I am speaking to you now, we have less than 24 hours to conduct local government elections in the state. Now, the judgement reconstituted the commission, catalyses our already ongoing process until we carried out the mandate to its logical conclusion which by tomorrow will be actualised,” he said.
With the election just some hours away, the KANSIEC chairman stated that only six political parties – the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), African Action Congress (AAC), National Rescue Movement (NRM) Accord, and Action Alliance – would participate in the poll.
According to him, a major party previously involved in the process has opted out after refusing to submit its candidates.
“The major party that petitioned the commission is already out of the race. It refused to recognise the institution even when we sat with them several times and tried to make them agree with the processes.
“The party refused to submit the names of its candidates and participate in the entire process. By implication, the party is out of the race. It has no ground on this issue. I would like to warn voters against vote buying, bribing of officials, underage voting and other illegal activities.”
Meanwhile, the Kano State Police Command has declared that it would comply with the Federal High Court order restricting it from participating in the election.
The command, in a statement by its spokesperson, Abdullahi Kiyawa, stated this on Thursday.
“We will comply with the court order restricting us from participation in the coming Kano State local government election. However, we will remain steadfast in fulfilling our constitutional mandate of protection of lives and properties,” Kiyawa stated.
Despite this, the state government insisted that it would proceed with the local government election.
The state Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf stated this on Thursday while presenting flags to the 44 NNPP chairmanship candidates for the election.
The governor assured that the party would win all 44 chairmanship seats and 484 councillorship slots in the state.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M