The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the police have assured Nigerians of a hitch-free governorship election.
They gave the assurance yesterday during a stakeholders’ meeting on the election held at the Prof. Dora Akunyili Women Development Centre in Awka.
Those at the meeting included the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu; the Inspector- General of Police, Alkali Usman Baba, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Anambra, Dr. Nwachukwu Orji, the Co-convener of the National Peace Committee, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, and others.
The Anambra governorship election will hold this weekend.
In his address, Yakubu noted the commission’s areas of preparedness for the election.
He stressed that the electoral umpire is determined to prosecute perpetrators of electoral malpractice including the commission’s staff on election duty.
Yakubu disclosed that the commission would deploy the Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) device and assistive devices for Persons With Disability (PWDs) to ensure equality in voting.
He said: “This is to guard against voting by identity theft where one person uses another person’s Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) to vote using the incident form. With this development, the use of the incident form is abolished.
“No voter without a genuine Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) will vote. No voter who has not been successfully accredited electronically using the BVAS will vote.”
In the same vein, the IGP said security operatives would be deployed to Anambra for the election.
He assured the public that the deployment was not designed to intimidate the citizens but to curb activities that would undermine the process.
Baba said: “It is to also serve as a strong warning that the government is determined to bring such subversive characters to justice should they advance their ignoble, undemocratic, and unpatriotic intents.
“The overriding objective of our operational action plan is to ensure an environment that is peaceful enough to encourage the law-abiding people of Anambra State to exercise their electoral franchise.”
On his part, Kukah expressed optimism that the people of Anambra would not allow the election to divide them as they are culturally homogeneous and mostly Christians.
He encouraged them to come out and vote for the candidates of their choice.
The cleric said: “Anambra has no reason being divided. They are culturally homogeneous, predominantly or significantly Christians to the point of 80, 90 percent. The issue of what God is to Anambra they ought to know better.
“I am impressed with the coming of INEC Chairman, who is taking all the troubles with all the difficulties to be physically here just to encourage the people of Anambra.
“This country is ours to fix and I think Anambra has the mandate to do so. As I said earlier, the people contesting for Anambra governorship election are literally qualified to be contesting for the Presidency of Nigeria.
“The elections are here and if you decide that you don’t want to vote, you have voted, if you decide that you are not going to vote, it will not stop the process. It will only mean that the candidate that you did not want may probably be the one to win the election and you have to live with the consequences.
“Our lives are in the hands of God and I don’t think any citizen of Nigeria should be afraid of death that they are afraid to live up to their political responsibility.
“Otherwise, what will I be doing here coming all the way from Sokoto and there is no chance that I am going to live in Anambra even though I have many friends in the state.
“However, I come all the way from Sokoto, the other extreme end of the country as an act of solidarity because there is nothing that rest of us can offer than that.”
