Low Campaign Activities May Mar Borno LG Elections, Only Six Political Parties Are Participating

Low campaign activities may mar Borno LG elections, only 6 political parties are participating

By Madu Mohammed, Maiduguri

Few hours to the local government area in Borno state, low campaign and political activities may mar the election, as no political activities and campaign in Maiduguri,the state capital and it’s environs.

The six political parties that fielding in candidates in the election includes All Progressives Congress (APC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP), New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Social Democratic Party (SDP) Labour Party (LP) and Allied People’s Movement (APM) are participating in the election.

There is no activities that signifies elections in the state despite the lifting of ban on ccampaign by the Borno State Independent Electoral Commission (BOSIEC) on Nov. 28, 2023.

Finding by Daily Hint correspondent indicates that only the ruling APC that fielded in candidates for the 27 local government areas,and 312 councilorship positions, and the PDP 5 local government areas. SDP also fielding one chairmanship candidate and two councillors in Jere, while Labour Party and APM are fielding only one councillor each in Gwoza and Jere LGAs respectively.

Speaking in an interactive with Daily Hint correspondent, a candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which fielded candidates for all the 27 Chairmanship and 315 Councillorship positions who pledged anonymity, said the issue has to do with lack of cash by many candidates to prosecute the campaign.

He said further said “many of us are waiting for possible cash support from the party or government,” a chairmanship candidate.

Also, the leading opposition parties in the state, PDP raised the issue of finance which they said seriously affected their participation in the election as BOSIEC collected N500,000 from chairmanship candidates and N250,000 from councillorship candidates.

Speaking in an interview with journalists, the Publicity Secretary of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Amos Adziba, said due to the high cost of forms and current hardship in the society, the party can only afford to field chairmanship candidates in five LGAs only.

“We are fielding chairmanship candidates and some councillors in Biu, Askira/Uba, Kwaya-Kusar, Maiduguri Metropolitan and Jere LGAs and that’s we only concentrate in those areas. Due to high cost of forms and current economic hardship, some of our candidates had to sale land, farm produce or obtain loan to participate in the election, the Publicity Secretary said.

Adziba said.” We hope the election will be free and fair. For now we are giving BOSIEC the benefit of doubt, ”

On his part, the State Chairman of NNPP, Mr Mohammed Mustafa, said his party could only afford to field one chairmanship candidate in Jere LGA with two councillors.

All efforts to get the officials of BOSIEC on details of preparations for the election did not yield result as they insisted on patience pointing out that the commission would call the press for briefing.