Benin — Chairman of People's Democratic Party, PDP, in Edo State, Chief Dan Orbih, Tuesday, accused Edo State Independent Electoral Commission, EDSIEC, of flouting its guidelines for the conduct of the April 20, local government elections in the state, alleging that the electoral body turned a blind eye to the imposition of candidates by the leadership of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in the state.

Insisting that the action of EDSIEC violated its guidelines by not supervising the primaries of ACN, which he said were unconstitutional, null and void and against the tenets of democracy, he called on the Commission to, as a matter of urgency, disqualify all ACN candidates, allegedly imposed on Edo people by the leadership of the party.

He explained that the disqualification of all ACN candidates for the local government elections became necessary because the party did not conduct primaries to produce its candidates.

Chief Orbih, who spoke with newsmen in Benin, also called on EDSIEC to refund all the monies it allegedly collected from aspirants contesting the April 20 local government elections.

Denying insinuations that Edo State PDP was not prepared for council elections, he restated the preparedness of his party for the grassroots election, just as he queried the rationale behind the electoral umpire charging N100,000 for chairmanship aspirants and N50,000 for councillorship aspirants before they can obtain form to contest the said elections.

He said: "There is nowhere in the Nigerian constitution on the conduct of local government elections, where aspirants are required to pay money for collection of form. I am using this medium to serve a notice on ESIEC to start refunding all the money it collected from aspirants in the name of form."