APC Chieftain hails Gov AbdulRasaq on KWASIEC’s Board inauguration
By Bunmi Adedoyin
The Kwara State Governor, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq has again been applauded for the inauguration of the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission, just as the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State urged to attend immediately to the long standing issue of Membership Registration before thinking of any Primary election.
Former Leader, Kwara State House of Assembly in the Second Republic, Chief Stephen Wole Oke who gave the charge today in Ilorin in a chat with Newsmen called on political Party leaders to submit themselves to the uncompromising ethics of fairness, justice and equity to strengthen democracy and the third tier of government .
“The coming to life of the Commission is an assurance that the State will hold the election to the Councils of the Sixteen Local Governments of the State. This is most comforting as the grassroot governance becomes operational very soon. In this context therefore, it becomes inevitable for political Parties to commence the process of producing potential candidates for the elections into the offices of the Chairman and Ward Councillors” he added.
Chief Wole Oke is the Jagunmolu of Shao said the coming to life of the Commission wad an assurance that the State would hold the election to the Councils of the Sixteen Local Governments of the State and would make the grassroot governance becomes operational very soon.
He advised political Parties to commence the process of producing potential candidates for the elections into the offices of the Chairmen and Ward Councillors.
Chief Wole Oke explained “in the process of getting their candidates, Parties may have to go into Primary Election to select a candidate from among the myriad of aspirants, who have shown interest in contesting for one office or the other, that is as the Local Government Chairman or as a Councillor to represent their Wards in the Council. This stage is always the most contentious in the democratic process of producing the Party’s candidate for an election. It is a universal phenomenal practice in a democratic dispensation and tradition. It is a stage that can either make a Party or break a Party. It is a stage when Party leaders will have to be very careful”.
The second Republic House Leader called on the State Executive Committee of APC to do the needful in the area of Membership Revalidation and Registration in the best interest of the Party and avoid the bastardisation of the Membership List as witnessed in previous Membership Registration and Revalidation exercise.
He added that the exercise would give people who, in their thousands today, have attained the constitutional age requirement of Eighteen years and to allow others that joined the Party before the General Elections to be registered as Party Members.
“On top of this condemnable practice of the past is the added need to give chance to those people who, in their thousands today, have attained the constitutional age requirement of Eighteen years and to allow others that joined the Party before the General Elections to be registered as Party Members” he noted.
Their new status should be considered and they should therefore not be denied their constitutional right to participate in the grassroot governance, which is what the Local Government Council really is.
The Kwara State House of Assembly had earlier approved the list of names of the Seven Members constituting the membership of the Commission.
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