The national leadership of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has
announced dates for its chairmanship election across the country to
usher in new state executives.
According to IPAC, in a letter dated 18th November, 2019 with the
heading “Notification of IPAC State Election Dates” and addressed to
all the state chapters across the federation, the body noted that
after due consultation, the President-in-Council has directed that the
date for the IPAC election be held as follows:
States in the North East and South West zones will have their election
on November 26th, 2019 while that of, South South will come up 28th
November, 2019.
For the North Central and South East zones, which also include Kwara,
elections for the two zones will come up 2nd December while that of
North West is slated for 3rd December, 2019.
According to the letter signed by IPAC national Secretary-General,
Georgina Dakpokpo, all national officers who will serve as electoral
committee members in the various states will be contacted with
information on the state assigned to as well as collection of election
materials.
Speaking on the level of preparation recently in a telephone chat, the
State chairman of IPAC who also double as the Kwara State chairman of
Labour Party, Comrade AbdulMumini AbdulKareem Onagun confirmed he will
not be seeking reelection after spending an historic two tenures in
office, a feat none of its past chairmen have had.
He said his decision was hinged on the conviction that others should
also be given the opportunity to serve and improve on the achievements
he and other past chairmen left behind.
“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 meeting
centered on the election. All the political parties are well
prepare…”.
He added that the number of positions and offices to be vied for has
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 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 has been made, as the state chairman, we have been
directed to appeal to the political parties to abide by it for IPAC
all over the country will 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 finds 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 had said.
