2023: Enugu State AC guber candidate expresses optimism in INEC
The Governorship candidate of Accord Party (AP), for Enugu State, Barr. John Nwobodo says he is confident that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will conduct free and fair election in 2023.
Nwobodo said this in Enugu while reacting to recent allegations made by the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) over irregularities in the last voter registration.
He said though the allegations were germane, he believes in INECs ability to check such anomalies.
“The allegations raised by CNPP is nothing to worry about. INEC said last week that it had deleted about one million registered voters over irregularities.
“I trust that INEc will do the needful, so, I have implicit confidence in the ability of the commission to correct such anomalies before the election, ” he said.
On the issue of PVC collection the AP candidate condemned the situation where some politicians in the state were allegedly collecting Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for people in their wards..
“This is something that should worry any citizen because INEC has maintained that collection of PVCs should be in person and not by proxy.
“Proxy collection or collecting PVCs in bulk in the pretext that, it will be handed over to the owners should not be condoned at all.
“I speak out against it, voters should go out to collect their PVCs by themselves, it should not be by proxy, ” he said.
He advised the INEC not to condone bulk collection of PVCs at all, adding that it was part of rigging strategy by politicians in the state.
“The commission must insist on personal collection of PVCs in line with the rules, INEC should follow the rules guiding it’s operations, ” he said.
Nwobodo further said that the state chapter of the party had constituted an election offences monitoring group.
“It is a situation room where we keep our eyes on the political parties and their candidates in the stste.
“Anytime we discover anything that is not in sync with the electoral law we take such person or political party up legally and pursue prosecution, ” he said.
