By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
The new Resident Electoral Commission in Kogi state,REC, Dr Hale Gabriel Longpet, has assured victims of flood in the state, eligible to vote, that the Commission had made adequate arrangement for them to vote in line with its resolve to ensure that all qualified to vote in the country exercise their civic responsibility and have their votes counted.
Longpet gave the assurance on Wednesday in Lokoja while fielding questions from Journalists in the state l during his first official meeting with them.
Longpet,the 17th REC since the state was created on August 27,1991,said the Commission was not unaware of that the devasitating effects of the flood on the residents, including eligible voters, adding that it had made sure they were not deny their right of voting for the candidates of their choice during 2023 general elections.
The Reporters recalls that the flood affected nine of the 21 local government areas of the state, thousands of people rendered homeless, houses and other properties worth millions of naira destroyed.
He said since his assumption office in the state, he had met with critical stakeholders in the electioneering preparation towards 2023 general elections, such as security agencies and held Inter-Agency Consultative Committee and with people with disabilities PwDs in the state.
The REC told the Journalists that, “we are however at the critical stage in the implementation of the time-table and schedule of activities for the general elections.
“The media, which are expected to serve as mediators in the electoral process, cannot afford not to be involved and play those roles that have seen them play all over the world in shapping the political landscapes of various countries.
“Working with some of you critical stakeholders, the Commission has undertaken , and successfully carried out several activities in some areas which are critical areas of preparations for the elections in 2023.”
The critical areas,he added, include, the distribution of some of the sensitive and non sensitive materials, training of personnel who would be handling some of the newly introduced technical devices introduced to the Electoral Act 2022.
According to him, various categories of staff have been trained,both at the national,zonal and local government levels, adding that staff trained will be those to train the ad-hoc staff being recruited at the moment.
He assured Nigerians that, “there will be no going back on the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BiVAS) for voter accreditation as well as no going back on the electronic transmission of results to the INEC viewing portal (IREV) in real time on election day.”
The REC, however, stressed the need for Nigerian public and particular, citizens of kogi state to complement the efforts of INEC to ensure a smooth electoral process by the Commission’s adherence to the timeline provided by the Electoral Act 2022.
“One cannot hope to vote if one does not have a PVC.The collection of PVC is central to the electíon of the kind of leaders that people desire.
“However, the collection of PVCs in kogi state has left much to be desired.PVC collection has been on-going since September 2022; however, citizens of Kogi State have not responded positively to INEC’s call people to go and collect their PVCs,” he observed.
He said while PVCs for those that registered between June 28 and July 31st would be ready this November, the Commission ” is working very hard to improve the process of PVC collection and to ensure that Nigerians have a pleasant experience when they go to collect their cards.”
