Archbishop Adewale-Martins Faults Delegate System

Archbishop Adewale-Martins Faults Delegate System
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Most Rev. Alfred Adewale-Martins, the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, has unequivocally faulted the delegate method being used by political parties in the country to choose party flag bearers, ahead of the 2023 general election.

Adewale-Martins said this in an interview with NAN in Lagos on Tuesday.

The Archbishop said an arrangement where only a few party members are accorded the right to elect party standard-bearers would not give room for the best candidate to emerge and described it as utopian and defective.

Read Also: Alleged $35,000 Bribes For Party Delegates Dangerous – Moghalu

Adewale-Martins expressed disappointment in moneybag politics and called for the removal of the clauses in the electoral laws that allow parties to select their flag bearers through delegates.

“There is a need for us to change the process with an open party member’s primary to make the process more acceptable and all-inclusive.

“Its fault is that a moneybag politician can buy the conscience of the delegates to do his bidding at the expense of the party and the polity. At the end, the worst candidate may emerge.

“If you feel the impulse of the people on what is happening; the kind of characters this lopsided process is manifesting, you will observe that the people are unhappy with the products of the process,’’ he said.

 

In another report, the Court of Appeal in Abuja has issued an order restraining the National Assembly from imposing statutory delegates at the ongoing convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In a ruling on Monday, Justice Haruna Tsammani also restrained the enforcement of the judgement of a Federal High Court in Kano delivered on June 3 granting the enforcement of amended of Section 84(8) of the Electoral Act, 2022.

The ex parte application by the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Adamu was moved by A.A. Popoola and Karma Fagbemi, and had pleaded with the appellate court to stay the execution of the judgment of the high court delivered by Justice A.M. Liman in suit number FHC/KN/CS/137/2022 permitting Senator Mas’ud El-Jibrin Doguwa, Hon. Habila Sani, Hon. Bilyaminu Yusuf Shinkafi, the Senate, the Speaker of House of Representatives and the Independent National Electoral Commission to enforce the amendment.

Justice Tsammani further ordered the service of processes of the order by substituted means against the parties in the matter and adjourned hearing of the motion on notice for stay of execution to June 9.

 

Africa Daily News, New York

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