The Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has appealed to Nigerian electorates to be peaceful as they troop to the polling units to cast their votes in Saturday’s Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly elections.
He reminded residents that only the house of Assembly election would hold in the state tomorrow.
Soludo, in a special message through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Christian Aburime, to Nigerians and the people of Anambra State, said peace is the prerequisite of any meaningful development.
“Without peace and harmony, development and socio-economic prosperity will continue to elude us.
“Our topmost priority should be the sustenance of peace, unity and the spirit of good neighbourliness,” the governor said.
He warned that violence would not do anyone any good, as it is destructive and retrogressive.
“Nobody should perpetrate violence in the name of politics, hence we should all uphold the sanctity of human life.
“So, we should all go out peacefully on Saturday and cast our votes to the deserving candidates.”
Governor Soludo who clocked one year in office today, renewed his promise of rebuilding Anambra State.
BVAS For Optimal Performance
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC,of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Anambra State, Queen Elizabeth Agwu, stated that BVAS has been configured for optimal performance during Saturday’s election.
She reiterated the commission’s readiness to conduct a hitch free and credible elections in the thirty constituencies of the state on Saturday.
Agwu who gave the assurance in a press conference at the INEC Headquarters in Awka on Friday,confirmed that the election must hold as scheduled, and that the commission had yesterday distributed all sensitive and non-sensitive materials in all the 21 Local Government Areas of the state.
She said, “It is a tradition that we normally move our materials, particularly, the sensitive materials to the local governments from the local governments to the RAC centres and to the polling units.
“We have 21 local governments and we have watched and distributed our materials down, most especially the ballot papers that are meant for the State Assembly elections and this has been properly and systematically outlined so that there won’t be a mix-up.”
Dr Agwu warned that INEC will not tolerate any form of thuggery or the use of any political incriminating tools in the voting centers, disclosing that they have already deployed security personnel to all the 5,720 polling units across the state ahead of tomorrow’s exercise and will not fail to prosecute any electoral offender.
She warned the state ruling All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party (LP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressive Congress (APC) and other political parties participating in the Saturday March 18,2023, election in the state not to venture into any polling unit with Point of Sale, POS, machines.She said that will prevent vote buying.
According to Agwu, INEC has already provided adequate supervisory group to monitor, maintain and professionally handle challenges that may show up.
Agwu further advised all INEC and Adhoc Staff assigned for tomorrow’s election duty to strictly uphold the tenets and stipulated guidelines, saying that all materials including original result sheets are made available and must be used for the purpose.
She therefore urged Anambra people to come out en masse to vote for the candidates of their choice while assuring them that their votes must count and asked those with temporary PVC receipts not to bother coming out since it will not be accepted during the voting exercise.
She assured the electorates that by 8:30 am on Saturday, voting would commence across the polling units in the state.
The State REC, who was flanked by other National Officers deployed to the State for the Exercise said that all logistics have been put in place to facilitate free and fair polls in Anambra State.
PIAK
