THE National Unity Party (NUP) has expressed confidence in the ability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct free, fair and credible elections in 2019.

The National Chairman of the party, Chief Perry Opara said this at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party held on Thursday in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that NUP was reregistered by INEC along nine other political parties in Sept. 2016.

Opara said that with the recent elections conducted, including the just concluded Anambra governorship by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu-led commission, INEC had demonstrated the neutrality of the commission.

He said virtually all the elections conducted recently had so far been accepted by political parties or their candidates who participated in the elections.

Opara noted that even when few of the elections were contested, none was nullified by the court.

“INEC of old where people write all manner of result is no longer there.

“Now, as party’s agents are collating results, sending it to situation rooms, we don’t actually see any difference in both results.

“This has led to many people developing more interest in participating in the elections.

“Nigerians votes have started counting under the present INEC leadership. It counted in Anambra and other recent elections.

“I am a politician that loves things to be done properly, and when I see something that is good, I stand by it. INEC has demonstrated that there will be level playing ground for all parties in 2019. ’’

Speaking on the resolution of the NEC meeting, Opara said that the committee resolved that NUP would participate in the 2019 general elections, especially presidential.

He said despite the setback that NUP witnessed as a result of its deregistration by INEC for five years, NUP was confident of winning elections in 2019.

“At a point, we have started defeating the then ruling party Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in places like Rivers and other states but now it is difficult for us to bring people together.

“We are now going for mobilisation of new members since some old members left along the struggle.

“Our states and local government chairmen have started membership drive to bring in new members.

“We are reaching out to the people who have the qualifications to contest for the position of presidential and governorship elections in the party in states where we have strength.

“In a place we have position of strength, we are going to field candidates to contest with other political parties.

“The party is going to be more vibrant than ever before, especially now that the timetable for 2019 general election is out.’’

Opara added that the NEC also resolved that the NUP should go into a coalition with other parties with the aim of winning in future elections, both at the state and national level.

The national chairman also disclosed that through unanimous decision, the NEC appointed Mr Daniel Lusa as acting National Secretary, and Mrs Onyema Okoh as acting National Women Leader of the party.

“In our last NEC meeting, we discovered that since our party was deregistered for the last five years, we lost some of our members including officers of the party.

“The NEC gave us power to find out the true situation, whether they have left the party or still coming back. We have done that and discovered that they had left the party.

“That is why NEC appointed some people to act in that capacity for some time.’’

NAN reports that the NEC at its meeting equally passed unanimous vote of confidence on the Opara led National Working Committee of the party. (NAN)

– Feb. 1, 2018 @ 20:20 GMT |