The Kwara State chapter of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IAPC) will hold its election to usher in new state executives next month.
The election which will be held across the country will come up between the 1-15th of November, 2019, it was gathered last night.
The State chairman of IPAC who also doubles as the Kwara State chairman of Labour Party, Comrade AbdulMumini AbdulKareem Onagun confirmed the date of the election during a telephone chat last night.
Onagun is spending his second term as the IPAC chairman in the state, a feat none of its past chairmen had.
The IPAC chairman who confirmed he will not be seeking a reelection said he believe others should also be given the opportunity to serve and improve on the achievements he and the past chairmen left behind.
He said deadline for the payment for interested contestants would laps on Tuesday (tomorrow)
“The election is coming up early next month and people are already submitting their letters of interests and making necessary payment to the INEC headquarters in Abuja after which there shall be a specially designed forms to be send to all the contestants across the state in Nigeria.
“Officials from the national headquarters will come down to screen all contestants and the successful ones will now be cleared to contest for the election. Everything, including the ballot papers and other materials to be used for the exercise will be handled by the national body and all that concerns us in the state is to provide adequate and appropriate information to all the political parties.
“We have been able to do this in Kwara. We have held two meetings centered on the election. All the political parties are well prepared and deadline for the payment is Tuesday 15th November, 2019”, he noted.
He added that the number of positions and offices to be vied for have been increased to 13 offices as against 9 to have an all encompassing executive that will carry everybody along.
On the decision for the contestants to pay N30,000 and N20,000 respectively for the position of chairman and others which has generated controversy, the IPAC chairman said:
“Our national leadership in Abuja has reviewed our code of conduct which has just been sent to us recently few weeks ago. Attempt made at the state level to contact them on the issue did not scale through and we were told bluntly that the decision was a national one. The eyebrows the issue has raised is not only in Kwara but in other parts of the country.
“Since the decision was made, as the state chairman, I have been directed to appeal to the political parties to abide by it for IPAC all over the country to now wear a new look and it will not be business as usual.
“The goal is to have a renewed IPAC in Nigerian and for us to achieve this change, we need financial buoyancy. Those that are coming to conduct the election should be comfortable to a large extent and the money will be generated from within the political parties. It’s in our code of conduct to find ways and means of generating additional revenue”, he noted.
Onagun said IPAC should be seen to be neutral and cannot declare support for a particular government. “All we are after is the conduct of free and fair election across Nigeria. All registered political parties are part and parcel of IPAC and INEC is a stakeholder also. During our election, if there is a tie, INEC has the voting right to decide on such stalemate and that is why we normally hold our election and even meetings right at the INEC state office”, he added.
