The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has verification of the status of political parties in the country, says Hawa Habibu, the Director, Election and Party Monitoring of the commission.
Ms Habibu said this when she led INEC’s Election and Party Monitoring Team on a visit to the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Ganduje.
She said the visit was part of the commission’s annual verification of political parties.
“It is a constitutional mandate of the commission. Basically, we are supposed to find out and issue notices where political parties are not in compliance with the constitutional provisions, as to the number, structures of the party in terms of office in Abuja, auditing of their finances and other issues.
“The team will go round to verify the offices with our forms to give us the structure of the party as to whether the Electoral Act provision of minimum of 24 members of different states of the federation and the FCT has been compiled with,” she said.
She added that the team would also verify the party’s audited account. “The last time we had this verification was in 2019 and there was COVID-19 in 2020. We had so much activities in 2021 and 2022.
“And it has become pertinent that we have to do so now to verify political parties to ensure that the compliance status are in order. These are basically our assignments,” she said.
Responding, Mr Ganduje commended INEC for effectively handling the country’s electoral process in spite of challenges.
Mr Ganduje, while speaking on violence before, during and after elections, said the electoral umpire could not be blamed for election violence, adding that politicians must be held responsible.
“I know one of the biggest problems of INEC in conducting elections is insecurity. Everyone will say INEC, but it is the politicians,” the APC national chairman said.
He described the visit as historic and a day of reckoning and accomplishment in terms of the relationship between INEC and political parties, particularly the APC.
Credit: premiumtimesng.com
