March 17, (THEWILL) – Former Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters, Sen. Ita Enang, has urged residents of Akwa Ibom State to shun violence and make their votes count in Saturday’s governorship and State House of Assembly elections.
Enang, who is a political stakeholder in the State and former Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger Delta Affairs, said this during an interactive session with selected journalists in Uyo, on Friday.
He urged the electorate in the State to vote for a credible candidate that will superintend the affairs of the State and candidates that will represent them in their various constituencies effectively.
“There should be no violence, there should be no attack on any persons including the electoral umpire, the INEC officials at the polling units, the officials at the collation point, the officials of the government at the different points of voting.
“Please maintain calmness, do as much as you can to ensure that you vote, and don’t employ or apply violence or cohesion.
“In all this, whatever you want to do, please vote in a manner that your conscience tells you, that your life and the life of your children will be better,” Enang said.
Enang urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that materials and personnel get to the polling units on time.
He charged INEC to look at registered voters in some units and deployed more Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to speed up accreditation on Saturday.
“INEC should, please, go in early, distribute the materials in a manner that will go to the different polling units at the appropriate time because at the last election, as at 2pm when the voting was supposed to end, we were just one quarter into voting in my polling unit.
“They should look at the population of the voters in each of the units, and make sure they deploy enough BVAS to speed up accreditation.
“They should also remind their staff that they should do voting and accreditation at the same time so that you don’t accredit people, and they go and wait, and then, you say voting will start later because, by the time that finishes, the time is gone.
“I pray that we should, at this time, do our best to give this election the credibility that it has gained already, and then, get more applause for the country,” he stated.
He charged security operatives to ensure neutrality in all their election duties to avoid bringing the name of their profession to disrepute.
Enang also commended the security agencies for their performance in the Feb. 25 presidential and national assembly elections.
“The security agencies have played a very commendable role, they have not descended into the arena of the elections.
“I want to commend them and pray that they should maintain that pedigree so that they will give confidence that the security agencies are not descending into the arena.
Enang, however, commended the President and the Federal Government for all the steps taken so far to ensure free, fair and credible elections in the country.
