By Omos Oyibode, Asaba
A group, under the aegis of Centre for Youth Participation Advocacy (CYPA), has lambasted State Resident Electoral Commissioners, calling on Nigerians to hold the body responsible should there be any manipulation of election results in the 2015 general elections.
Speaking in Asaba, the Delta State capital, Executive Director of the group, Chris Iyama, said the success of elections and the results released were the handiwork of State RECs, hence, he said all hands should be on deck to ensure free and fair elections, even as he warned State RECs not to sell their conscience to declare losers as winners in the elections.
The group whose campaign theme is Red Card Campaign Against Election Violence, explained that 17 states including Delta, Edo and some in the North have been observed to be prone to election violence, noting, however, that if INEC State Commissioners are not ready to sell their conscience, true election results would manifest all over the nation.
He said Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Atahiru Jega, had said it cannot conduct free and fair election without the assistance of all stakeholders, political parties, Civil Society Organisations and the willingness of RECs to abide by the rules of the game.
Iyama, who condemned employing youths to cause violence during elections, said the body was working towards ensuring that youths participate in the 2015 elections without being employed as thugs, thereby disrupting the peaceful conduct of the elections.
He, however, said Delta is likely to conduct free and elections following the orderly manner in which the primaries were conducted in the state which produced Senator Ifeanyi Okowa as the PDP flag bearer for the February 28 governorship elections.
Vice Chairman of the Delta State Chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Felix Igbekoyi, called on all Nigerians to ensure that the election is free and fair, saying the result of free and fair elections would be a better society for all Nigerians.
He called on the group to look at issues of insurgency, pipeline vandalism, cultism and other social vices and join other Nigerians in finding solution to these menace in the country.
