Isaac Ombe – Yenagoa
As campaigns for the November 11, 2023, governorship elections hots up in Bayelsa State, a Civil Society group, Centre For Transparency Advocacy (CTA), has advised politicians not to subvert the citizens choices by the use of.money during the elections.
Executive Director of CTA, Madam Faith Nwadishi, made the call at a Stakeholder’s Roundtable for the November 11 Governorship Election in Bayelsa State.
She said citizens’ choices must never be subverted by the negative use of money to influence votes, including the criminal purchase of PVCs by politicians.
Represented at the event by MacDonald Ekemezie, Programme/Communications Manager of the group, Madam Nwadishi noted that the importance of the votes of the electorate informed politicians’ desperate scrambling for votes with money.
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“There should be no buying and selling of votes as this will hamper development in the state.
“We recognise clearly that the symbolic presence of law enforcement agents at polling units on election Day has not deterred vote buying. It is therefore, important that a more result-oriented method like covert operations be adopted to curb this menace.
“An early warning flagging by the Central Bank and Commercial institutions will as well alert anti-graft agencies to track illicit money intended to usurp the wills of the people through rigging of elections induced by money”.
She described security as a ‘critical’ aspect of the electoral process that requires attention during the entire electoral process. Saying INEC has recently raised an alarm and fears indicating that insecurity may pose a great challenge to the Governorship election.
“Citizens too have had cause to worry over the issue of insecurity in the state and if this is unchecked may discourage citizens from coming out to exercise their franchise on election day”.
“We expect better synergy between the police, the lead security agency on election security and other members of the inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCESS) with stakeholders on election. At least this will go a long way to instil confidence in the people prior, during election day and after election”.
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She said one of the greatest challenges faced by INEC on election days is the movement of personnel and materials.
According to the Executive Director, “This has hampered operations, leading to delay in commencement of elections.
Therefore, we appeal to the Unions to keep an eye on their members to ensure that when they take personnel and materials to designated locations, they also bring them back at the end of the elections.
“We implored the Maritime Union to ensure that personnel and materials are moved to the riverine areas without encumbrances”.
On his part, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), for Bayelsa State, Obo Effanga, said that INEC was committed and prepared for credible and successful governorship election in Bayelsa State.
In the words of Effanga, “INEC is prepared for this election, we will do all we could to ensure that the election is successful, the only way anybody can win this election, is to get voters voting for them, therefore the political parties and candidates should be campaign now.
“We promised to do our best to ensure that this election is credible.” he added.
According to him, INEC will deploy BIVAS in all the polling units, disclosing that out of the 1,056 862 total registered voters in the state, 566,755 are male while 490,767 are female.
Also speaking, the chairman of Maritime Union in Bayelsa State, Comrade Ogoniba Ipigansi, said they were fully ready and that the union has prepared and service ready 1,005 boats for the exercise.
Other participants that pledged their readiness and commitment included the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS), National Orientation Agency (NOA) and Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC).