Rivers State governor and factional chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, on Thursday, urged the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, whose reputation he said was at stake, to ensure the smooth conduct of the 2015 General elections.
Governor Amaechi made this charge while addressing journalists at Government House, Port Harcourt, on the need for registered voters in the state to collect their permanent voter cards which he said would enable them vote in the forthcoming elections.
He, however, expressed fears that the PDP-led federal government might frustrate Jega’s bid to conduct free and fair elections next year, saying: “What INEC is doing is to say all the elections in the past could not have been properly conducted; now we want to conduct a free election. I didn’t use the word ‘fair’, I hope you heard me, because elections in 2015 may be free but at the end of the day, they may not be fair.
If they use police and army to chase away the voters of APC, will that election be fair? For now, we can only assume that INEC will be able to conduct a free election hoping that Prof. Jega will defend his reputation.”
He insisted that the people’s mandate must be protected, stressing that “this time our people’s mandate must be protected. This time your votes must count and journalists should be at the forefront of that fight. Nobody can buy us with money. Someone who was council chairman yesterday suddenly has mansions left, right and centre.
“Go and get your permanent voter card so that you can vote out PDP. If you don’t have the permanent voter card, you will not be able to vote in the forthcoming elections.
I assure you that this time, our votes must count and for our votes to count every registered voter will have the support of the Rivers State government to go and collect the permanent voters card. Those who have not registered should also get ready to register when the continuous voter registration commences in the state.”
Amaechi urged INEC to rectify whatever technical challenges they had to ensure that Rivers people in the 23 local government areas collect their permanent voter cards to vote at the elections.
At the moment, only seven LGAs could have their permanent voter cards, according to INEC.
Amaechi said: “We sympathize with INEC and we will join them to pray that they find a solution to the remaining Local Government Areas. In my Local government Area (Ikwerre L GA), there are some units that don’t have, they were registered but their names have been omitted completely and in that case, there will be fresh registration.”
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