December 16, (THEWILL) – Bayelsa State government has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to ensure that the devices they invest in common resources function properly and to ensure free and fair elections in 2023.
They also warned the Commission against the complaint of nonfunctionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for voters during the election.
Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information, Orientation, and Strategy, Hon. Ayibaina Duba, stated this Thursday, during the 8th Annual Public Lecture organised by the Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Bayelsa State Council in Yenagoa, the state capital.
He described the theme of the lecture “Ensuring Free and Fair Elections In The Face of Security Challenges” as harp considering the experiences of previous elections in Nigeria.
He said: “The question of free and fair election is about us as Nigerians, when a community tells a stranger who registered in their Community not to vote, is it the electoral umpire that is doing that?
“INEC staff who collaborate with the people that rig election are they not human, INEC is an organisation filled with human beings who are doing what they are doing, that is why I urged them that whatever they spent out in our common resources to organised, they should not come back to tell Nigerians that those things doesn’t exist”, he said.
The former Chairman of the chapel and Director, New Media to Bayelsa State Governor, Dr Kola Oredipe, said with BVAS, INEC and voters have a lot of things to do to achieve free and fair election.
He commended the chapel for contributing their own quota in shaping the society through the series of the yearly lectures.
Meanwhile, a university don and director of the institute of Niger Delta studies, Niger Delta University, Prof Solomon Ebobrah, has said the spate of insecurity and rampant attacks on INEC facilities in some parts of the country is a major threat to free and fair elections in 2023.
Prof Ebobrah, while delivering the 8th annual public lecture, organised by the Federated Correspondents Chapel of the NUJ in Bayelsa state, posited that the security threats have affected free campaigns and the voters registration, as well as the ongoing distribution of permanent voter cards, thereby hampering the principle of free and fair elections.
Speaking on, “Ensuring free and fair elections in the face of security challenges, the university don urged security operatives to be directed protecting the voters and not people in government or other important personalities to guide against voters apathy during the next elections.
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