The Peoples Democratic Party Youth Network, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to avoid subjecting Nigerians to another round of heartaches in the Bayelsa governorship election scheduled for November 11, 2023
The coordinator of the group, Mr. James Oputin, said in a statement on Friday that the discordant tunes coming from INEC on the issue of the electronic transmission of results is generating so many doubts and tension.
Oputin said that while the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ofiong Efanga, jolted Bayelsans by saying that INEC would adopt manual transmission of election results, the Chairman, Prof Mahmud Yakubu has come out to overrule him.
Yakubu had said penultimate Saturday that the results of the November 11 governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states would be transmitted electronically.
Oputin said that the people are doubtful of INEC’s conflicting declarations from the state and the federal level on the sensitive issue of the electronic transmission of results, which is expected to reduce drastically the disturbing incidence of electoral violence in the state.
He noted that Nigerians have not forgotten how the same INEC under Prof Yakubu abruptly opted to transmit the presidential election result manually after weeks of intense media reassurances to Nigerians that the election would be transmitted electronically.
He urged Prof Yakubu to prepare the minds of the Bayelsa voters and stakeholders on what to expect, as most people seem to have dismissed his statement as yet another ambush on the election day.
Oputin also called on the Bayelsa REC, Efanga to address the press on the disturbing conflict on the issue of the planned deployment of electronic transmission of results.
He said that it is a difficult task to convince a person who has been a victim of trust-related disappointment to believe someone carrying an albatross of trust.