The Benue State Independent Electoral Commission (BSIEC) on Thursday said only eight political parties it cleared would participate in the elections into the 23 local government areas of the state on October 5.
Chairman of BSIEC, Barr. Richard Tombowua, told journalists at a press conference in Makurdi that the commission was fully prepared to conduct the exercise.
“We have received eight political parties that expressed interest in the elections and field candidates for the exercise in all 23 LGAs of the state,” he said.
Tombowua listed the parties cleared for the exercise to include; All Progressives Congress (APC), Action Alliance Congress (AAC), Labour Party (LP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
He said that the commission would soon commence training for ad-hoc staff and that all necessary measures were in place including adequate security personnel during the period of the election.
The chairman said the list of candidates from caretaker committee of the APC and PDP fielded for the elections were received in line with directives of their parties’ headquarters in Abuja.
He explained that a portion of the funds approved by the state’s House of Assembly for the election budget had already been released, adding that so far, vehicles had been purchased, with 21 of them delivered, while the commission awaits the rest.
Our correspondent reports that the Assembly earlier approved over N6billion for the elections.
The BSIEC chairman further said that contracts for both sensitive and non-sensitive materials had been awarded while arrangements were made to ensure peaceful conduct of the elections in all 5,102 polling units of the 276 council wards in 23 LGAs of the state.
Tombowua stated that nothing, except an act of God, could prevent the elections from taking place on the scheduled date as he emphasised that the most recent amendment to the LG Electoral law had stopped court interference, meaning any attempts by aggrieved parties to seek injunctions would not succeed.
