From Mike Osunde, Benin

Its spokesman, Mr. Godwin Erhahan, said the idea was to salvage the state from the stranglehold of those he described as people who are out to enrich themselves at the expense of the electorate.

As early as 10.00 a.m., hundreds of the party supporters gathered at the ANPP secretariat from where they dispersed in various vehicles, driving around town, singing and drumming, and waving the ANNP flag.

Thereafter, they converged at the Ward 10 Secretariat of the party in Oredo Local Council where a Benin musician, Joseph Osayomore, known for his vitriolic against the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in his songs, was on hand to entertain the ANPP loyalists.

Meanwhile, Zamfara State Governor Ahmed Sani Yerima has sent a solidarity message, justifying the clarion call for political reforms.

First executive governor of the state, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, said the rally was in response to theory and yearnings of the people.

"At last", he said: "This party has finally heard the cries of the people to give them back the state and the country which is rightly theirs".

Other speakers as the rally held along Sakponba, Benin were two of the party's likely governorship aspirants, Mr. Matthew Urhoghele and Col. Paul Ogbebo (rtd).

Also present was Mr. Thomas Okosun, who joined the ANPP from the PDP after being ousted as speaker of the state House of Assembly.

Okosun, in his brief speech, condemned those using ethnic sentiments to divide the party and invoked the spirit of the late Prof. Ambrose Alli, whose leadership of the defunct Bendel State (now Edo and Delta states) he said did not suffer such ethnic chauvinism.

In his solidarity message, Yerima said he supported the Edo ANPP's call for electoral reforms such as the joint Control of Independent National Electoral Conference (INEC) by all stakeholders; adoption of Open Ballot System (Option A4); abolition of State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECS) and, the resignation of all incumbent officials three months ahead of elections.

Yerima said the experience from the 2003 elections justified the call for electoral reforms. He declared that the ugly experience had eroded the confidence of the people "in the ballot boxes so much that one can predict that majority of registered voters will not turn out to cast their votes in future elections if the electoral system is not reformed".