The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that the reason they monitor political parties was not to witch-hunt or de-register them, but ensure that they complied with the constitutional requirements that set them up.
The leader of the INEC monitoring team, Mrs. Nkechi Abu, stated this in Abuja on Friday during a monitoring visit to the headquarters of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).
Mrs. Abu, who admitted that the APGA National Chairman, Barrister Sly Ezeokenwa, made her team’s job easy by his proper introduction of their mission, noted that the job of the monitoring team was statutory.
“Our visit is to ensure they run the parties the way it should be. The annual monitoring is to check them and ensure that they comply with the constitutional requirements,” she said.
On what the INEC team looks out for during such monitoring visits, Mrs. Abu said, “we have to check whether parties truly have headquarters in the FCT.”
“We have to see the National Working Committee members physically in compliance with the constitutional requirements. All political parties must have members and officers spread in 2/3 of the federation.
“We have to see the hardcopy of the membership register as well as the soft copy. The constitution expects that it is an incremental thing.”
According to the INEC team leader, the party would also get six or more copies of the party’s constitution and its statement of account (finances).
“By the time we see all of these, we also see whether you have administrative staff. We all hope we will be giving APGA a clean bill of health.”
Earlier, welcoming the INEC team, Mr. Ezeokenwa said the evolution of APGA would not be complete without the judiciary.
He stated that the party had emerged from its leadership tussle, assuring that it would resolve its internal squabbles while hoping that at the end of the monitoring, APGA would be giving a clean bill of health.
“For me, this visit is divine; it is very timeous when the Supreme Court judgement came,” he said.
He said the fact that members of the National Working Committee gathered from all parts of the country without a hitch was divine.
He commended Justice Kekere-Eku and other justices for the Supreme Court judgement and others which ensured that justice was served in the APGA case and prayed for God’s protection over them.
The highpoint of the occasion was the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the party which saw the presence of prominent party chieftains.
Among them were elected members including Anambra state governor Charles Soludo, deputy governor Gilbert Onyekachukwu Ibezim, the Senator representing Abia South Enyinnaya Abaribe and Hon. Alex Mascot Ikwechegh, the member Aba North & South federal constituency.
Others were House of Assembly members from Anambra state as well Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, the Minister of State Foreign Affairs serving in President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet and former chairman of APGA, Victor Oye, as well as state chairmen of the party.
