ACN threatens to stop Kaduna LG polls

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has warned the Kaduna State Government that the much-anticipated December Local Government elections in the state may not hold if the government continues to sideline the duly-constituted state executive of the party in favour of the rogue state-sponsored ‘faction’.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, ACN said that as a law-abiding party, it has resolved to ask the courts to stop the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission from conducting the polls on grounds of exclusion.

The party said despite the fact that the Kaduna State Government was officially notified, in a letter jointly signed by its National Chairman and National Secretary, of the removal of Barrister Soba as its state chairman, the Kaduna State Government, especially the State Independent Electoral Commission, has continued to deal only with a rogue ‘faction’ of the party in the state in a blatant disregard for the relevant laws.

It said this act of illegality on the part of the Kaduna State Government reached its most absurd and provocative level last week, when the State Independent Electoral Commission handed over materials and documents for the December council polls to the same Barrister Soba and, by so doing, chose to unnecessarily overheat an already heated polity.

”It is trite law that whenever there are two or more contending factions of a political party in any state, it is only the National Secretariat of the party in question that can conclusively pronounce on the legitimate one. If the Kaduna State Government is not the unseen hand behind the factionalisation and destabilization of the party in Kaduna state, why has the government – in spite of the letter from the National Secretariat (of the ACN) clarifying the situation – continued to deal with Barrister Soba, who has been removed as chairman the party in the state?

”While appealing to our supporters in Kaduna State to remain calm and law abiding in the face of this provocative illegality, we also call on  the Kaduna State Government to immediately retrace its steps by dealing only with the recognized executive of the ACN in the state, otherwise its planned December council polls will never take place,” ACN warned.