*Says 80 percent of them are APC members.

*Describes NSHA as epileptic and disfunctional

Nasarawa State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted the composition of the State’s Independent Electoral Commission which has fixed May, 26 as date for the conduct of local government elections in the state.

In an interview with Nasarawa Eye in his office along Jos Road in Lafia, the State’s PDP Chairman, Hon. Francis Orogu maintained that 80 percent of NASIEC members are card carrying members of the ruling All Progressives Congress party (APC). He said that the Commission’s chairman, Henry Omaku was a former elected chairman of Doma under the APC platform.

Averring that only neutral persons are supposed to be appointed into the commission, the PDP chairman stated that its composition was not only illegal but also immoral because the law guiding conduct of NASIEC was still under review in the State House of Assembly. “For NASIEC to make an announcement on date for election when the law guiding NASIEC is still under review in the State House of Assembly is illegal”, he stated, adding that the recent appointments of two more commissioners for NASIEC by the state government “is still wrong because all those appointments should have been done first before announcing the date for election. It is not the proper thing to do”.

Asked what would be the party’s next line of action, Orogu asked rhetorically, “why should I subject myself to the dictates of someone who is depriving me of my rights?”. He said that the party will call a stakeholders meeting soon to decide on whether to seek redress in the law court or otherwise.

 

On the dwindling number of its members in the state House of Assembly with two of its members having defected to the APC, the PDP chairman stated that the party was still better off with its two remaining members, noting that some states with more members have had all of them decamping, leaving them with none at all. He blamed the situation on the moral standing of the individuals concerned. “We are not surprised given the calibre of some of them”, he remarked.