Aspirants on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the upcoming local government election in Katsina State have expressed shock and anger over what they said is the high cost of nomination form set by the party’s State Working Committee (SWC).
The party has slammed a whopping sum of N5m as nomination fee for local government chairman and N1.5m for ward councillors in the forthcoming elections.
But aspirants have urged the party to do a downward review as it is a local government election and not state or federal elections.
They warned that excessive cost of forms could lead to unqualified aspirants who have the fee to buy the forms to hijack the election thus denying qualified and credible aspirants the chance of being candidates, which they said could lead to defeats in the election.
But the State Deputy Chairman of the APC in the state, Alhaji Bala Musawa, would have none of it and confirmed the outrageous sum at a press briefing held at the Katsina Government House Banquet Hall on Tuesday.
Musawa who spoke to journalist after a meeting with the State working committee, state executives, as well as chairpersons and secretaries of the party from the 34 local governments disclosed that aspiring chairmen have to pay N5 million while councillors would be required to pay a fee of N1.5 million for their nomination forms.
“It is true, the State working committee has set N5 million and N1.5 million for chairmanship and councilorship aspirants respectively.
“All payments for the nomination forms must be made directly into the party’s account; the sale of nomination forms would commence from 1st to 4th of May 2024.” he stated.
The Katsina APC Deputy Chairman also revealed that, “All completed forms must be returned to the State Independent Electoral Commission, SIEC, by Thursday, May 9, 2024.”
Referring to the election timetable issued by SIEC, the APC deputy chairman highlighted that primary elections for council chairmen are scheduled for Saturday, May 18, followed by council primaries on Wednesday.
Subsequently, the final list of candidates emerging from the primaries will be submitted to the State Electoral Commission on Monday, the 20th of the same month.
Musawa urged all contestants to adhere strictly to the election guidelines, particularly in relation to electioneering campaigns.