The Kano StateKano State Peace Advocates, (KASPA), a non Governmental Organisation has called on the Kano State Commissioner of Police, other Security Agencies, State Council of Ulamas to call APC to order and respect the institutional mandate of KANSIEC to avoid any unnecessary violence before, during and after the forthcoming Kano State Local Govt Elections.
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Comrade Sufyan Lawal Kabo, Publicity Secretary of KASPA made the call at a press briefing held on Monday.
The full text below:
Introduction
We are members of the Kano State Peace Advocates (KASPA), a coalition of 37 non-governmental and non-partisan Civil Society Organizations working to promote violence-free political activities in Kano state.
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KASPA has been conducting a series of activities with the aim of sensitizing major stakeholders, including leaders of political parties, elected and appointed politicians, youths and students, to shun any form of political violence and serve as good ambassadors for the development of our democratic process.
Background
As you may be aware, the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) is planning to conduct elections for chairmen and councilors across the 44 local governments of the state.
The commission has, at different engagements with the stakeholders, been giving updates of its plans including detailed dates for the purchase and submission of the Nomination forms, screening of candidates, release of the list of eligible candidates, recruitment of ad-hoc staff, screening of observers and media organizations, etc.
In doing all this, the commission cited relevant sections of Kano Local Government Law that empowers it to conduct the elections.
Attempts to Sabotage the process by the APC
While the commission and other stakeholders have gone far with the preparations for the conduct of the elections, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state has been, directly and indirectly, deploying means to sabotage the process. This started with several attempts to obtain court orders which did not succeed. On Wednesday the 16th of October, the secretary of the party in the state, Malam Ibrahim Zakari Sarina took a list of APC candidates to the commission. In a video that went viral on both social and conventional media platforms, Sarina was seen with the KANSIEC`s commissioner in charge of political parties trying to force him to collect the APC`s list.
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But the commissioner refused to collect because according to him the APC did not follow due process as laid down by the commission. This calls for a serious concern as it is a recipe for inviting unnecessary confusion. It is like an attempt to board an aircraft for Hajj operation while you know you have neither made any payment nor have you submitted yourself to the pilgrims welfare board for screening and other formalities.
Our Appeal
We call on the Kano State Commissioner of Police, Kano State Commandant, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Kano State Director of Department of State Services (DSS), His Royal Highness, the Emir of Kano State, Malam Muhammadu Sunusi II, and Kano State Council of Ulamas, to call APC to order and respect the institutional mandate of KANSIEC, so that unnecessary violence will be avoided before, during and after the Kano State 2024 Local Governments Elections.
