7 political parties cleared for Benue LGAs election

The Benue State Independent Electoral Commission (BSIEC) on Monday said that only the seven political parties cleared by it would participate in the elections into the 23 local government areas of the state on June 3.

Chairman of BSIEC, Dr. John Tsuwa, told Daily Trust in an interview in Makurdi that the commission was now fully prepared to conduct the exercise.

He said that the commission had trained its staff and put all necessary measures in place including adequate security personnel including the Police, State Security Service and Civil Defence during the period of the election.

Tsuwa added that the parties cleared for the exercise were; All Progressives Congress (APC), CPP, Accord, Labour Party (LP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Action Congress Democracy (ACD) and National Conscience Party (NCP).

The chairman said while the list of the Makarfi-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was rejected following directive from the party's national secretariat not to deal with the faction, the Sheriff group did not field any candidate for the election nor showed up for screening which had been closed.

He maintained that BSIEC would respect the rule of law in the process of conducting the exercise but however denied receiving any court summon from the Makarfi-PDP which allegedly dragged the commission to court last Thursday.

POSTED BY:OPUOMONI PRIYE

DATE:05/09/2017