All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Taraba State Independent Electoral Commission (TSIEC) of conniving with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state to defraud its candidates for the upcoming local government polls in the state.
The state APC Chairman, Ibrahim El-Suldi, made the allegations while briefing journalist in Jalingo, on Tuesday.
El-Suldi further threatened that, should TSIEC fail to readdress the conditions and guidelines for the local polls suspected to favour the PDP candidates, his party, (APC) would not hesitate to sue the electoral body to court to seek for redress.
It would be recalled that the TSIEC chairman, Dr. Philip Due, had announced guidelines, conditions and date for the Taraba local polls since 4 weeks ago. Slating the election for November 8th, 2025.
El-Sudi while addressing journalist decried that TSIEC has imposed N1,000,000 fee for the chairmanship in the election, a development he said is unconstitutional conditions, contrary to the Supreme Court’s directives as stipulated in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Per the TSIEC guidelines, as reported by our correspondent, vice chairmanship candidates must pay ₦500,000, female vice chairmanship candidates ₦250,000, male councillorship candidates ₦150,000, and female councillorship candidates ₦75,000, while candidates with disabilities are exempt from form fees.
El-Suldi described the conditions as a deliberate strategy to deny other political parties from participating in the election.
The APC chairman called on Taraba State Governor, Agbu Kefas to prevail on TSIEC to delete the guidelines from the process.
He further explained that the Supreme Court and the constitution said: “The Independent Electoral Commission shall not impose certain conditions as guidelines for candidates to participate in an election.
“We wish to call on governor Agbu Kefas to prevail on the TSIEC to delete the provision in the guidelines to avoid disenfranchisement, the position of the supreme Court on candidate participating in an election is clear. The fee impose as condition is not in consonants with the supreme Court stipulations.
“We have viewed these ideas as a strategy to disenfranchised other political parties to participate in the election. PDP is afraid to go into the election considering what happened in the Karim-Lamido 1 By-election.
“We have gathered that the idea is an arrangement between PDP and TSIEC. We learnt that the PDP candidates would not be paying the fee. It would be deducted from their salaries when they won the election and they are sworn in offices.
“We are ready to contest the decision in court, should TSIEC fail to withdraw the condition. This is not a law. It is a guideline, and should be withdrawn”, he insisted.
