Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Intra Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has called for a constitutional amendment to scrap the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs).
The council described the existence and operation of SIECs as a fraud, adding that this was the reason free, fair and credible election has eluded the nation’s lowest tier of government.
The President of IPAC, Chief Peter Ameh who addressed journalists in Abuja yesterday on the decisions reached at the first meeting of the new national executive committee of the body, also said that IPAC believed that if local government authorities have autonomy and guaranteed tenure, it will be easy for the people to hold them accountable and for them to deliver on the much-needed development.
Speaking on the position of IPAC on the conduct of election by SIEC, Ameh said the council members believed that the state electoral body has become an instrument in the hands of the governors for manipulation of the electoral process..
“IPAC makes a bold declaration today and without mincing any words, that the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) are the greatest democratic fraud foisted on our electoral democracy. This is the major reason we stress that the conduct of Local Government Elections become the responsibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This is
because from the conduct of state elections by State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) thus far, it is impossible to get a free, fair and credible election under the existing arrangement,” he said.
Ameh said that IPAC believed the current system encourages massive rigging because SIECs
are under the wills and caprices of the State Governments and the political party in power in each State across Nigeria.
