By Onome Oghenetega
With Nigeria’s general elections around the corner, one expects that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be doing all necessary to ensure free, fair and credible polls.
However, this may not be the case in Delta state, as a Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) is yet to be deployed to the state barely less than 30 days to the Presidential and National Assembly polls.
Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Delta State Council, Comrade Michael Ikeogwu, made the observation during a visit of a team of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Delta State Chapter, to the council in Asaba on Friday.
Ikeogwu while calling for immediate deployment of a REC, as well as a substantive administrative secretary to the state, said a situation where ad-hoc officers will be appointed may not be tolerated, as it may disrupt credible electoral processes.
He particularly bemoaned the lack of visible activities at the State INEC office, saying the situation could affect the exercise.
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The NUJ chairman also noted that with just few weeks to the federal polls, pre-election activities of the INEC such as voters’ sensitization, distribution of permanent voters’ cards (PVCs), and relocation of unit/ward venues are yet to take place.
“We understand training is going on in others states and at the national level of INEC for critical stakeholders but no one has said anything here in Delta State.
“We are aware about 400,000 PVCs have not been collected and INEC is not bothered and reports reaching us indicate that people who made efforts to collect their PVCs could not do so because the INEC ad-hoc staff are nowhere to be found,” Ikeogwu said.
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He noted the need for ideological-based manifestoes among the different political parties, stressing that one could hardly differentiate among the numerous political parties.
Earlier, the state coordinator of the TMG, Mr Raymond Omorodion, harped on collaboration with the NUJ and the need to institute credible elections to guarantee people-oriented governance.
Speaking through his deputy, Pastor Edewor Egedegbe, Omododionstated that his organization had concluded arrangement to enter into a charter with all political parties and their candidates in the state with a view to binding them with the wishes of the people in projects execution.
