Some members of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), umbrella body of registered political parties in Lagos State, have called on the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) to scrap the administrative fee being demanded from candidates.

LASIEC, in its guidelines for the July 12 local government elections  demanded N150,000, N75,000 and N50,000 administrative fees for chairmanship, vice chairmanship and councillorship candidates, respectively.

According to the commission, political parties are to pay administrative charges for processing of each of their candidates, except female candidates and people with disabilities.

The said charges is payable into any bank in Nigeria in favour of Lagos State government using the revenue code: 33101 and Agency Code: 77095.

Dissatisfied with the fee, no fewer than five members of IPAC, including the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), African Action Congress (AAC), Young Progressives Party (YPP), All People’s Party (APP) and Accord Party staged a peaceful walk to LASIEC on Monday.

Chairmen and leaders of these political parties, alongside some members and aspirants during the walk, called on LASIEC to immediately suspend collection of the fees or risk court action.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Adekunle Mode-Adenipebi, the Lagos State chairman of ZLP and IPAC organising Secretary, said that the fee was unconstitutional and had been scrapped in recent council elections held in Ogun and Oyo.

“LASIEC is not a revenue generating agency and cannot act like one.

“How can the commission demand N150,000, N75,000 and N50,000 administrative fees for Chairmanship, Vice Chairmanship and Councillorship candidates respectively to participate in the poll?

“We are here to make LASIEC understand that these levies are not constitutional because its sole responsibility is to conduct elections and not to generate funds for the state government.

“Why should the aspirants for political offices pay? It is unfair on all grounds. LASIEC should scrap it immediately.

“It is unacceptable and we cannot take that,” he said.

The IPAC organising secretary said that if the commission remained adamant, the group would have no other option than to approach the court just like it was done in Ogun before it was reversed..

Ms Mode-Adenipebi said that if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) never demanded such fees from seekers of higher political offices like president, National Assembly and state assembly, no state electoral commission should do so.

According to him, political parties can charge candidates such fee(s) to run the parties but not the electoral commission, saying it would disenfranchised aspirants.

Corroborating, the Lagos State chairman of Accord, Dele Oladeji, said that the commission was imposing levies many candidates were finding difficult to pay.

According to him, LASIEC is asking candidates to pay what they don’t have.

“We have told LASIEC that if it doesn’t want litigations, the administrative fees should be scrapped immediately.

“We are here to tell them to remove that fee and they should refund whoever has paid it.

“We will be dragging LASIEC to court by Wednesday if it remains adamant on this.

“Many people who have aspirations to contest in the polls will be disenfranchised because they don’t have the kind of money being asked to pay.

“Democracy thrives when people do not have stringent conditions to meet before they aspire for any seat. We should not make things difficult,” Mr Oladeji said.

Other leaders that took turns to speak said that the administrative fee was not acceptable and could not be enforced.

The peaceful walk which took off from Birrel Avenue at Sabo-Yaba saw the group walk to the premises of LASIEC in procession, but no official of the commission addressed them.

Other party leaders in the walk included Abiola Adeyemi of APP, Ayoyinka Oni of AAC and the immediate past chairman of IPAC, Olusegun Mobolaji of YPP.

 (NAN)