Benue Youth Forum, has described the planned Benue All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship rerun in the 11 local government areas in state as Illegal and warned that it is recipe for chaos amongst youths in the state.
President of the youth group, Terrence Kuanum, in a statement he signed, urged Benue APC to abide by the letters of the electoral act of 2020, which renders any rerun outside the circumstances of death or withdrawal of a candidate as illegal.
The group also urged state INEC REC not to allow to be dragged into the state APC’s mess.
The statement reads: “We, the Benue Youth Forum address you this morning to express our concern and worry over the persistent illegalities being perpetrated by the All Progressives Congress, APC in our state and its tendency to plunge the state into crisis and affect the youths particularly, negatively.
“You are all aware that the APC in Benue state conducted a governorship primary that was said to be in gross non-compliance with the electoral act and other extant laws, a situation which made the appeal court to nullify the primaries and call for a rerun in eleven local governments of the state.
“When the party was on the way to shooting itself on the foot, we drew their attention to the pit ahead of them and called for caution. But they rather called us names, including tagging us as politicians. And when the party eventually held the questionable primaries and it started generating resentment among their governorship aspirants who claimed they were not aware of any primaries, we suggested that they reverse the process and do the right thing as specified by the law especially as they were still within the INEC time frame for conduct of party primaries which elapsed on 9th June, 2022. Rather than commendations we received spikes from the APC only for our stand to be vindicated when the court nullified the process.
“Now that the nomination of Mr Hyacinth Alia has been nullified by the appeal court, the APC has moved on to another leg of illegality by proposing to conduct a rerun on the 1st and 2nd of February. This move of the APC is against 2 backdrops – first and foremost being that the INEC calendar for conduct of party primaries has elapsed since the 9th June, 2022 and secondly, Prof. Terhemba Shija has activated a process of appeal to the Supreme Court which requires maintanance of status quo ante bellum until the Apex Court delivers a final decision on the dispute and between the disputants.
“The APC must also be made aware that Section 82 of the Electoral Act, 2022 specifies that political parties must serve a notice of primaries to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC at least 21 days before the conduct of a primary election. More so, Section 29 of the Electoral Act is explicit that the names of duly nominated candidates must be conveyed to INEC at least 180 days before election.
“As it stands, the APC is clearly warming up to again, flout the electoral act and other extant laws of the country. This is because the election is less than 60 days away and the planned rerun which is in itself another illegality is coming barely a week after the appeal court ruling which is now been further appealed to the Supreme Court.
“INEC regulations on political party primaries also makes it mandatory that upon a request, aspirants are entitled to have certified true copies of the register of party members to be used as mode of accreditation in a direct primary. We are aware that in spite of evidence of such request, the party has refused to make such bulky certified true copies available to the aspirants. This is a recipe for chaos as every Tom, Dick and Harry is capable of infiltrating the process and claiming to be eligible to vote.
“Stemming from the above, our main concern is that majority of the followers of the APC in Benue are youths and we can’t fold our hands and watch the party continually derail them and expose them to acts capable of causing breach of public peace, law, order and due process and causing rancour in the polity just because of the desperation of some unpopular politicians who have penchant for disobeying laws and regulations.
“We therefore reiterate our call on the APC not to cause any crisis in the state, especially as the matter is now at the Supreme Court and the windows for primaries are already closed by INEC, except in the event of death or voluntary withdrawal of a candidate like the case in Abia, where a primary shall be conducted due to the demise of a governorship candidate.
“We also want the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Benue not to be dragged into the mud like his predecessor who midwifed the process now dubbed “yahoo yahoo” primaries of the APC in Benue state. We say that because the immediate past REC in spite of our repeated warnings allowed himself to be cajoled into enabling the APC to sit the law on its head, and they are now paying for the indiscretion of a KM 4 failed politician who has made the state chapter of their party his personal estate.
“We believe in the ability and professionalism of the current REC to stay faithful to extant laws governing our electoral processes. In this wise we therefore expect him to guide the APC properly. We also expect the national headquarters of the INEC in Abuja which was served with relevant appeal processes respecting the proposed rerun to maintain adherence to the rule of law and fidelity with its own INEC calendar which mandates that party primaries must be conducted on or before 9th June, 2022. We urge it to resist pressure or temptation to be caught up in the murky waters of the APC’s internal malfeasance. The best thing to do is to allow the appeal process initiated by Prof. Terhemba Shija to run its full course rather than indulge the APC in more shenanigans.
“It is also imperative to warn Benue youths across the state to shun the antics of greedy and desperate politicians who would want to use them negatively for their political gains as the APC is planing to do.
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“We enjoin the security agencies and the National Headquarters of INEC to ensure that the APC members in Benue don’t take the law into their own hands by doing that which the laws forbid.
“For the people of Benue, we advise them to avoid any unlawful gathering organised by the APC in the name of rerun primaries to prevent any unforseen situation that may be potentially harmful, as we are aware of the tendency for the planned charade to become violent.
“We once again, say it loud and clear that the APC are responsible for their ordeal in Benue state and should desist from further illegalities and acts capable of causing a breach of public peace and order as that would be portraying us all state as a state of people given to lawlessness.”
