ANPP Drags Niger SIEC To Court

The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) in Niger State has dragged Niger State Independent Electoral Commission (NSIEC) to court, seeking an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the commission from conducting the scheduled councillorship bye-election in seven wards across the state.
In the originating summons filled on the 19th day of October, 2009 by the counsel to the party, Bar. Chris Osuagwu, the ANPP is seeking a declaration that the commission “cannot validly conduct councillorship bye-election in Niger State without giving 14 days mandatory notice of poll and time within which the plaintiff is to submit the list of its candidates” to the commission as recommended by the electoral act.
The party also demanded for an order compelling the defendant to provide it with the time to submit the list, while it also prayed the court to issue an order of injunction to restrain the commission or any of its agents from implementing its time-table for the election scheduled for last Saturday.
ANPP in the originating summons, urged the court to set aside the timetable for the bye-election and all the processes and steps that may lead to conduct of the election.
It will be recalled that a faction of the party led by Barrister David Umaru, recently passed a vote of no confidence on the NSIEC, over what it called the commission’s unilateral decision to recognize only the ANPP faction led by Barrister Hussaini-Omar Garba.
The commission on its part described as totally baseless, the allegations leveled against it by the David Umaru faction. According to the commission, a court of competent jurisdiction had in its ruling, accorded the Hussaini-Garba faction the recognition, compelling the commission to act accordingly.
“Everything we have done is within the confines of the law,” the executive chairman of the commission had said in an interview it stated.