FROM RAHILA ABDULLAHI, KADUNA
Kaduna State House of Assembly has denied the allegation that it is planning to hijack the upcoming local government election.
Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Henry Marah denied the allegation while briefing newsmen in his office yesterday.
According to him, it is necessary to respond to such allegations made by the state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, so as to restore the confidence of the people and reaffirm the commitment of members of the Assembly to the well being of the state.
“We have no intention to amend the electoral law against an election that is supposed to hold on the 19th of this month, as a matter of fact, we amended the law in July.
“Laws are meant to be amended time to time to suit the situation on ground and one of the key points of amending the SIECOM law in July was the removal of the voting machine due to the short notice we had for the election.
” The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, by virtue of its voters registration increased the number of polling units across the state, and then the state at that time was not prepared to get those machines,” Marah said.
It would be recalled that the Kaduna State Chairman of the PDP, Edward Masha, in a briefing with newsmen yesterday, alleged that officials of the state government are planning to hijack the appointment of wards and local government returning/collation officers for the October 19 council election.
Masha explained that the electoral law in Kaduna State provides that the returning officer shall announce the result and declare the winner of election at the ward collation centre in the case of councillor and local government collation centre in the case of chairman and vice.
“The commission shall for the purpose of the election, appoint and designate such officers as may be required provided that no person who is a member of a political party or who has openly expressed support for any candidate shall be so appointed.
“It is on these allegations that I want to clarify that the 10th Assembly has been doing its work without favour, we are not cowards as we know what we are doing and it is not a tool to be used to suit any kind of situation,” Marah said.
While reassuring the general public that they are out to serve them, Marah enjoined them to continue with their campaigns, but in a peaceful and orderly manner.
