Opposition presents only four candidates for Jigawa local government election

Only the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has candidates in all the 27 chairmanship and 287 councillorship seats.

The Jigawa State Independent Electoral Commission (JISIEC) has said opposition parties have only four chairmanship candidates for the 5 October local government elections in the state.

JISIEC fixed N5 million as nomination fees for the chairmanship election and N2 million for the councillorship poll.

The commission’s chairperson, Auwalu Harbo, on Wednesday, said 11 political parties are participating but only the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has candidates in all the 27 chairmanship and 287 councillorship seats.

Mr Harbo said the People Democratic Party (PDP) and the New Nigeria People Party (NNPP) have two chairmanship candidates each.

Mr Harbo said the PDP also has three councillorship candidates.

The PDP chairperson in the state, Idris Diginsa, and his counterpart in the NNPP, Muktar Gwanga, could not be immediately reached for their comments.

But a PDP chieftain and former governor of the state, Sule Lamido, said the exorbitant nomination fees were fixed to discourage the opposition from participating in the elections.

Mr Lamido, in a statement on Facebook, said the decision means that the ruling APC has won the elections.

“The APC-controlled government of Jigawa State has WON all the Chairmanship seats of the 27 Local Governments and the 287 Councilorship seats in the YET to be conducted local government elections throughout the State.

“The reason being no opposition Party is able to pay the FIVE MILLION NAIRA for the Chairmanship and TWO MILLION NAIRA for the Councilorship nomination forms from the State electoral commission!

“While other States are engaged in protests over hunger and poverty, congratulations, Jigawa, for being the most prosperous State in Nigeria”, Mr Lamido earlier wrote in protest against the high coast of nomination form.