Ahead of the upcoming Governorship elections in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states respectively, the Chairman, Senate Committee on electoral matters, Sen. Sharafadeen Alli has appealed to eligible voters never to submit themselves to be used by desperate politicians for electoral manipulations.

These manipulations, the Senate committee chair, lamented, are capable of disrupting the entire electoral process and called on politicians as actors in the process to conduct themselves with integrity, humility and decency before, during and after elections.

Alli who made this appeal on Tuesday in Abuja at a stakeholders meeting convened by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room also urged security agencies to review and enforce additional mechanisms to ensure to the impartiality and the conduct of their official duties during the election.

According to the Senator, it was only commitment from both security officials and the citizens that can guarantee an improvement in the electoral system, disclosing that the National Assembly has commenced its oversight with the engagement of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in connection with the preparedness towards the off-cycle elections in the respective states.

Noting that the voices of citizens have become louder when it comes to electoral matters, Alli regretted that the judiciary has continued to play a major role in the electoral process, saying that the trend must be reversed.

His words: “For the electorate and the citizens they should be willing to perform their civic responsibility without submitting themselves to manipulations that can disrupt the electoral process. With these commitments, we are bound to improve the system.

“It is the responsibility of the National Assembly to improve upon the electoral legal framework and it is the responsibility of INEC to improve on its operational mechanism and electoral administration processes for future elections. It is also the responsibility of politicians as actors in the process to conduct themselves with integrity, humility and decency before, during and after elections.

“It is true that the judiciary has continued to play a major role in our electoral process especially by drawing enclosure to the process. This has to change, if we all play our role as citizens.”

Alli urged participants to take advantage of the gathering as important issues will be discussed and recommendations made to solve challenges that may be out to undermine the off cycle elections.

In his remarks, Mr. Y.Z Ya’u, the Convener of the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room and Executive Director of the Centre for Information Technology and Development, reiterated the importance of the upcoming elections in shaping the trajectory of electoral democracy in Nigeria.

He however raised concern about the decreasing voter turnout and the need to rebuild confidence among Nigerians in the electoral process, stressing that delivering free, fair, and credible elections was vital to ensuring the satisfaction of the Nigerian people with the election outcomes.

Also the Residents Electoral Commissioner (REC) Baylesa State, Mr. Obo Effanga noted that the police has assured them of deploying 27,000 personnels to aid election security.

He further informed that so far, it’s state citizens have collected 1,017, 613 voters cards out of the 1,056,862 registered voters across 105 wards.

According to him, to ensure smooth process on the election day , the commission have recruited and trained 223 supervisory presiding officers (SPO’s) for the election of which all are INEC staff to avoid unprofessionalism.
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