WAAPP raises committee on Kogi gov poll

Ayodele Adesanmi, Abuja - 27.03.2008

AHEAD of the Kogi State governor ship election scheduled for Saturday, the West African Association of Political Parties (WAAPP) has raised a three-man committee to monitor the conduct of the election. The committee is headed by a Togolese, Reverend Georges Ada, and assisted by Messrs. Kingsley Ibe, San Nkang as well as Jonas Ajina, with all of them arriving Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, on Friday.

The International President of WAAPP, Perry Opara, disclosed in Abuja on Wednesday that when the committee gets to Lokoja, the state capital, it would "assess the delineation of polling units, the availability of electoral materials, the atmosphere of the elections, the preparation of the Independent National Electoral Commission and the general conduct of the polls."

Opara, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Keke Earl, said the monitoring committee would hold a press conference on its observations on Saturday after the election. In another development, the National Union of Political Parties (NUPP) has faulted the Federal Government's "clandestine moves to enthrone a one-party state in Nigeria."