Oshiomhole tasks INEC on credible polls
(Nigeria) Ahead of March 28, general
elections, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, has tasked the Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC, to ensure the delivery of voting materials to the
polling centers on time so as to guarantee credible democratic elections.
Speaking to the Edo State INEC Resident Commissioner, who
paid him a courtesy visit in Government House on Tuesday, Oshiomhole said, “One
major area is the question of late arrival of materials. This has been a tool
that INEC has used oftentimes, deliberately, to reduce the number of voters,
but that is not the number that could have voted if INEC did not try to collude
to delay the materials so that even in the heart of Benin, between INEC office
at Ikpoba Hill to Oredo and even within Ikpoba Okha where the INEC office is,
it took them five hours from 8a.m., to about 1p.m., for materials to get there.
“The average middle class person would have said, inasmuch
as I want to vote, I am not going to waste my entire day waiting. So, many
people left in frustrations before the materials arrived and that affected the
number of persons that voted. I remember one of your officials told me that
they didn’t pay NYSC officials their allowances, that is why they protested. That
shouldn’t be election day issues.
“I hope you take into cognizance
that as you distribute and move the materials, there are increasing security
challenges. When you move the materials to CBN, I understand that CBN is a safe
zone but once it moves from there to the local government headquarters, the
security challenge is decentralized to 18 locations, by the time you move them
to the ward, you will be needing security in 192 locations and as you transport
them from the wards to the polling booths, you will have over 2,627 locations
where protection will be required.
“I hope you have arrangement with the security agencies, so
that we will have effective policing for both your men and the materials up to
the polling booth so that our country can freely vote. The tension that people
talk about, there shouldn’t be tension if there is confidence that the votes
will count.
“The role of INEC is central. I have had cause to say that when
we politicians talk about dividends of democracy, talk about roads, hospitals,
yes, but even dictators built roads, they built schools, sometimes even better
roads so it is not so much as whether government performs or not. In a free
society, once we are not socialists, no one should impose himself on us. That
is why democracy issue comes in and election process is the only way to allow
everybody who seeks to be king to go to the level of the dwarf because only the
dwarf is qualified to crown the king.
“I am satisfied that INEC has done soul searching and has identified
critical areas of electoral malpractices and has taken steps to eliminate all
the loopholes and weaknesses that are being noticed which I believe led to the
introduction of the card readers and biometrics.
“In this state, we launched the one man one vote campaign
because the state was a den for rigging and we said we can’t continue with this,
that cannot be a way of life. In the elections we have had so far, imperfect as
they were, there have been a substantial improvement over previous elections.
The people can see the difference when the vote counts,” he said.
Earlier, the Edo State INEC resident Commissioner said,
“Since I arrived Benin City on January 13, 2015, I have held
meetings with various stakeholders particularly the two parties that are indeed
the essential organs in this democratic process which is critical to the coming
elections.
“As umpires saddled with the responsibility of providing
democratic competition, we have a responsibility to give the state and the
country a clear statistics of not only this coming Saturday election but
subsequent ones and we are indeed sure that the outcome of the election will be
accepted by all stakeholders.”
He used the opportunity to show the governor and members of
the State Executive Council on the use of the card reader and the intimate him
on INEC’s preparedness for the Saturday Election saying that three ballot boxes
will be provided with Presidential ballot box and papers carrying red color for
Presidential, black color for the Senate and Green color for the House of
Representatives.
He appealed to the state governor to help mobilize the
registered 1,000,246 voters in Edo State in order to have a good turnout of
voters.
Comments
Post a Comment