By Kingsley Fanwo
A political pressure group in Kogi State , Kogi Democratic Initiative (KDI), has called on the All Progressives Congress not to take the laws into their hand by fielding a candidate that emerged through a primary election outside the stipulated time for conducting primary for the purpose of participating in the forthcoming Senatorial election, claiming that will amount to “reckless abuse of constitutionalism and the rule of law”.

Speaking exclusively to Vanguard in Lokoja, Wednesday, the spokesman of the group, Oyiza Jimoh said the APC in Kogi Central are acting as if they are above the laws of the land.

“We want to draw the attention of the world to a letter written by the Independent National Electoral Commission with reference INEC/LEG/LM/GM/15T/72 and dated 15th November, 2015. The letter was addressed to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, turning down the nomination of a candidate by the party for a bye election for Akko Federal Constituency of Gombe State.

“The commission rejected the nomination of Hamma Adama Ali Kumo as the candidate of APC for the election, citing the constitutional relevance of the time lapse for such nomination.
“Recently, APC took the law into its hand by conducting fresh primaries for a rerun in Kogi Central.

But we have confidence in the integrity of the INEC as a responsible institution and unbiased creation of law which must also obey the law.

“We want to make bold to say that the commission under the present leadership had displayed high level integrity and sense of responsibility. What was rejected in Gombe cannot be accepted in Kogi when the commission operates under the same law.

“Also, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has been one that abhors impunity. Our President has shown his commitment to protect the constitution even if such may affect his party.

Our President passed through the normal constitutional processes to emerge President. This is the more reason why he has continued to fight injustice against every Nigerian.

“We also urge INEC to investigate the officials who authorized the supervision of the illegal APC primaries held in Kogi recently.

Doing so will help ventilate the fears of the people of Kogi Central that some of the officials of the commission had been compromised to perpetrate unlawful acts”.

The KPI spokesperson said the body will do everything humanly possible to avert anarchy by desperate politicians who are bent on reversing the wheel of the nation’s electoral progress, calling on the people of the district to continue to maintain peace.