Ondo: Clark, CDD Ask Buhari, INEC To Ensure Transparent Election
A former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark and the Director, Centre for Democracy and Development, Mrs. Idayat Hassan, have urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure that the October 10 governorship election in Ondo State is transparent and fair.
They spoke in separate interviews with Insidebusiness.ng on Wednesday.
The incumbent Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress; Eyitayo Jegede of the Peoples Democratic Party and Agboola Ajayi, the candidate of the Zenith Labour Party, are the main contenders in the election.
Clark urged Buhari to direct the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, and heads of other relevant security agencies to avoid intimidation and partisanship and ensure that the election is peaceful.
He said, “I am appealing to Mr. President that they should abide by the advice, and directive he gave in Edo State. Such should still be the case for Ondo election.”
Clark, who is also the leader of Pan Niger Delta Forum, urged INEC to improve on its conduct during the Edo State governorship election.
He advised the Ondo people against violence.
He said, “My advice to the INEC is that they should improve on the excellent job they did in Edo State. I listened to the INEC Chairman, (Prof. Yakubu Mahmoud) when he was addressing the Peace Committee headed by a former Head of State, Gen Abubakar Abdulsalam. Eminent people as the Sultan of Sokoto (Muhammadu Abubakar) were in such a place. I think the Ondo people should listen.”
Hassan urged Buhari to avoid partisanship and direct security agents to be professional and non-partisan in the discharge of their function.
She said, “Mr. President has to make a very categorical statement of non-partisanship and ensure that the security agents do their work correctly without being partisan. Once the security actors are not partisan, we are almost sure and certain that we will have a free and fair election, an election that will be the wishes of the people.
“It is beyond them not being partisan, it is also the fact that they should be made to do their work, the way it should be. So when they see vote buyers and those who want to perpetuate violence, all of them should be arrested to serve as deterrents to others.”
She urged INEC to ensure timely deployment of adequate logistics for the election and appreciate the topography of the state and its heterogeneous nature.
She said, “All these should be factored in to ensure that there is proper deployment of electoral materials and implementation of their own rules. So if INEC could actually work on its own logistics, and if the security agents too will enforce the law and remain non-partisan, I think this will be another positive for us in the line of recent election.s
“INEC should ensure free and transparent election. They should also ensure that they deploy materials timely and adequately, because those are the kind of things that cause problem in the day of election. Election is a stakeholders’ affair. If those two stakeholders have done their bit then we can deal with political actors who will always want to spoil elections and win at all cost.”
It could be recalled that Yakubu had during a stakeholders’ meeting in Akure, promised that the Ondo governorship election will be better than that of Edo State, adding that INEC will address lapses noted in the past Edo election.
He also said that INEC will deploy z-pad to upload polling unit level results on a dedicated portal as one of the strategies to make the election transparent.
He also warned INEC officials to be professional and apolitical and added that INEC had made arrangement for its personnel and polling materials in the 3,009 polling units and 2,013 electoral wards of the state.
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