By: JENNIFER JOHN
Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma has described the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as an unbiased electoral umpire.
He also applauded the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) which he described as, “the best we can provide for now”.
Uzodimma spoke on Saturday while fielding questions from newsmen at his country home in Omuma, after casting his vote in his polling unit, together with his wife, Chioma at 12:10 pm.
He said; “We’re also helping to intervene here and there, to ensure that voting progresses smoothly, and I am happy that the elections have started in majority of the areas in the state.
The governor expressed confidence in the capability of INEC to conduct free and fair election, describing the commission as unbiased.
While advising the people to applaud the improvement and avoid looking for faults, the governor made it clear that nothing is perfect on earth, as only God is the perfect one.
Fielding questions from newsmen at Ehime Mbano Local Government headquarters, the Secretary to Imo State Government, (SSG), Cosmas Iwu, described the election as peaceful.
He said as a result of people’s passion for the election, they came out en masse to vote according to their conscience.
Hear Iwu; “INEC should be commended. There is improvement, but there is room for further improvement, though there is no human endeavour that is perfect.
“I commend INEC and urge it to work with network service providers to improve network coverage in subsequent elections, especially in the rural areas.
Also fielding questions from newsmen at his country home, the House of Representatives hopeful for Okigwe North Federal Constituency, Chikwem Onuoha pointed out that the problem of elections in Nigeria had always logistics.
He said the election was affected negatively by shortage of manpower, to the point that many people were trained on the spot at the Isiala Mbano Local Government Area headquarters to serve as INEC ad hoc staff for the election.
He observed that the main lapse on the side of INEC was that it did not update its records, in line with the new polling units it created, a situation where people were moved from one polling unit to the newly created ones without updating the records and adequate information.
He pointed out that people failed to turn up for the election in some parts of Onuimo Local Government Area, and Okigwe LGA, positing that Isiala Mbano was the only local government area in Okigwe North Federal Constituency where elections held in all the wards.
Also speaking, the Imo State Commissioner for Tourism, Jerry Egemba said though he was still collating reports from various wards, the election was generally peaceful, except for some places he got reports of skirmishes.
He advised voters to remain patient, as well as optimistic that their chosen candidates will emerge.
