Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the All Progressive Congress, Sokoto State chapter has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure most popular candidates emerged victorious in the polls.
The state Chairman of the party, Isa Sadiq Achida, gave the advice in his remarks while addressing INEC officials who were in the party secretariat to meet with candidates.
Achida, while commending INEC as well as the National Assembly for enacting the new electoral act said the new law was aimed at improving the country’s electoral process and advised the electoral umpire to also live by their words.
He further advised INEC to be neutral with the recruitment of the ad-hoc staff, saying information gathered by the party confirms that some bad elements have already infiltrated INEC in the state.
He said the leadership of the party in the state had advised every member of the party not to retaliate as billboards of the party is allegedly being destroyed in the state.
The head of the voter registration of INEC, Sokoto State office, Abori Takai, while addressing APC candidates at the party secretariat, confirmed that candidates seeking elective positions have been given a limit on their spending on the campaign.
Takai in his address confirmed that every candidate seeking the presidential seat must not spend beyond one billion naira, while governorship candidates spending should not exceed the sum of 500,000,000 Naira.
He further explained that for a senatorial seat, a candidate is expected not to spend beyond 100 million naira while a House of Representatives candidate’s spending is expected not to go beyond 70 million nairas.
He explained that violators of the section of the electoral act are entitled to 500,000 naira fines or 9 years imprisonment.
He assured that the commission will conduct statistics of all the spending including billboards, radio jingles, and newspaper advertisements among others to ascertain how much money is spent by each political party.
Takai further disclosed that the commission will not tolerate the use of derogatory words or hate speech throughout the campaign period.
Also speaking, the public relations officer of the commission in the state, Ahmad Musa, admonished the politicians in the state to play by the rule and not to violate any of the electoral acts.
He said the new electoral act prohibits from using their public official office for a political campaign, warning any candidate that violates any of the acts will be dealt with in accordance with the law.
