INEC scrutinising APC documents —Jega

JULY 17, 2013  

INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega:

THE Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said his commission has started scrutinising the relevant documents submitted by the All Progressives Congress for registration, saying as soon as the exercise is completed, Nigerians will know the outcome.

Jega stated this while answering questions from newsmen at a one-day workshop organised by United Development Programme  and Democratic Governance for Development Project, in collaboration with Inter-party Advisory Council, on revalidation of reviewed code of conduct for political parties in Minna on Tuesday.

Jega said, “The commission is assiduously working on all documents submitted by APC and as soon as we finish scrutinising all relevant information and documents submitted, we will let Nigerians know of the outcome.”

He said the reviewed code of conduct was the new framework for ensuring that politics in the country was violence-free.

Jega added that INEC and all political parties in the country had accepted and validated the new document as an instrument for governing the conducts of political parties activities in the country.

He said, “The major changes adopted in the new code of conduct was the expansion of the central working committee of IPAC from two to seven members, which created an avenue for many parties to be represented.”

He added that contrary to 2011 election code of conduct, where punishments were not stipulated for offences committed by any political party, punishments to be administered were clearly spelt out for any erring party in the revised version.

Also speaking on the occasion, the Secretary General of the Congress for Progressive Change, Buba Galadima, said the proposed opposition party had submitted all that was required of it to INEC for the past two weeks.

He added that he was optimistic that APC would be registered by the electoral body as soon as the commission finished working on all documents and information provided by the party.

On the revised vision of the code of conduct, Galadima said his party had agreed to all the changes effected in the new guideline.