As political parties in Imo State, jostles to conduct their primaries ahead of the governorship election in Imo state, a political pressure group, Imo Youths for a New Nigeria, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to avoid the mistakes of the February and March general elections.
They group insisted that nothing other than credible governorship elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa states on November 11, 2023 as scheduled, would satisfy the electorates.
At a press conference in Owerri on Sunday, the group in analysing the general elections claimed that INEC failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians through visible irregularities and other sharp practices, which must not continue to occur.
Leader of the group, Chidiebube Okeoma, appealed to the electoral umpire to utilise the window of opportunity ex pected by the November 11 governorship elections to “rewrite their wrongs”.
Okeoma said that given the procedure of the conduct of the just concluded elections, many Nigerians immediately lost interest and confidence in the country’s democratic processes and institution.
The renowned journalist and rights activist said that INEC gave Nigerians false hope on the conduct of credible elections, “but ended up conducting the most flawed election since 1999”.
According to Okeoma, ” the 2023 general elections didn’t meet up the expectations of millions of Nigerians and her environs.
“It was short-lived with vote buying, partisanship by some INEC staff and security agents, hijacking of electoral materials, mutilations of election results, some other acts inimical to the nation’s 2022 electoral act as amended, voters intimidation and surpression and to electoral violence, infact,the whole process was below global order.
“Politicians openly rigged the elections and they saw INEC officers and security agents who were willing tools in aiding them to compromise the democratic processes.
“To worsen the situation, they openly bragged and mocked the judiciary by asking those who opposed their rigging tactics to ‘go to Court”.
He pointed out that with the flawed process, INEC now has the opportunities of working to ensure that the three governorship elections taking place this November are conducted in strict adherence to the Electoral Act in which transparency, fairness and credibility are restored.
He maintained that if November 11 elections are not perfectly conducted, millions of Nigerians may not be interested to participate in future elections.
The social critic further observed that ” INEC has a golden opportunity before it. It has the rare opportunity now of using the three off season governorship elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa states to regain the lost confidence and the trust of millions of Nigerians and the world over.
“Already millions have decided that they won’t vote again going forward arguing that their votes don’t count, but if INEC conducts credible elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa States in November, millions may rescind their decision of not wanting to vote again. “INEC has no reason to fail Nigerians in that elections because unlike the February 25 and March 18 elections, the November 11 elections are just taking place in three states”.
