- Says he remains only ADC member in Reps
Hon Leke Abejide, member representing Yagba Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and the Chairman House Committee on Customs & Excise, has expressed confidence that the new Electoral Act will bring sanity into the polity by putting an end to cross-carpeting by politicians.
Abejide, who is the only standing elected member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the House of Representatives said if the law had been in place, it would have been difficult for his other two colleagues to dump the party.
While speaking in an interactive section the lawmaker who won his election in 2019 on the platform of the
African Democratic Congress, ADC said the Electoral Act has already addressed the issue of cross carpeting
by elected officers.
He said “elected officers may decamp at the end of the tenure to a bigger party if they wish, but not in the middle.
“In the next tenth Assembly, you will see a lot of small parties having candidates here. When the big parties, as a result of internal problems, throw away a popular candidate, the smaller parties will pick them and use them to win elections. And when they come here, they will not be able to cross.
They will remain where they are. The law has gone a bit better.” Commending the National Assembly for the landmark Electoral Bill which was signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, he said the electioneering process has been strengthened through Electoral Act to the benefit of Nigerians.
He said “elections before now are usually rigged from collation centres, but now the election is going to be
won from the polling units. The moment you vote; the result is already uploaded. Even if you are voting from the other side, the situation room is seeing it. If they like they should come and scatter and take the ballot box, the result is there”.
“This Electoral Act has arrested so many anomalies, especially the issues of the BVAS. If you go to court before now and you said the card reader didn’t work, they will say the law does not recognize it. Now, all electronic gadgets can be used during elections and they can be used as evidence in the court.
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It’s going to be more transparent. “Election is going to be clean and clear. It will help the masses to enjoy more because anybody in power will know that if he or she did not perform, he will not come back.
“The thugs will have less work this time. Their mode of operations is to waylay ballot boxes and when you are popular it’s difficult for any thug to thrive because when they look at what is on ground and see that they cannot operate, they will go quietly.
“Anybody that wants to rely on thuggery or wants INEC to declare your results under duress, you are just deceiving yourself. I will advise those thugs that they should change their attitude and become reasonable otherwise the thuggery will take them nowhere”.
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