The Kwara State chapter of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC)
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 and the Kwara State
chairman of Labour Party, Comrade AbdulMumini AbdulKareem Onagun
confirmed the date of the election during a telephone chat.
Onagun has is spending his second term as the IPAC chairman in the
state, a feat none of its past chairmen have had.
The IPAC chairman who confirmed he will not be seeking a reelection
for a third term of office said he believes others should also be
given the opportunity to serve and improve on the achievements he and
the past chairmen left behind.
โThe 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.
โOfficials 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.
โWe have been able to do this in Kwara. We have held two meeting
centered on the election. All the political parties are well prepared.
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.
The decision for the contestants to pay N30,000 and N20,000 for the
position of chairman and others which has generated controversy.
Addressing the issue, Onagun said:
โOur 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.
โSince 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.
โThe 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
revenueโ, he noted.
Onagun said IPAC should be seen to be neutral and cannot declare
support for a particular government.ย โAll 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 officeโ, he added.
