A group under the auspices of Policy Alert and Good governance has urged Nigerians not to be deterred following the sudden postponement of the General elections to 23 February and 9 March respectively.
It also urged the people to come out enmasse on the slated new dates to vote candidates of their choice.
The programme officer of the group, Utibe Archibong who stated this in a press statement made available to journalists in Uyo on Monday regretted the inconveniences and economic wastage the postponement had cost the people.
According to her, “There is nothing new about postponement of elections. In 2015, there was a similar postponement for a few weeks. We see this purely as a logistic challenge. The law empowers INEC to postpone elections when there are challenges with materials or security.
“You cannot blame Nigerians for being suspicious when things like this happen considering where we’re coming from. And when you consider the cost in terms of movement of people to their constituencies to vote, many of who even travelled back to Nigeria to exercise their franchise, it can be painful. But to get it right with our democracy, we must be ready for some sacrifices.
“Let’s not forget that at least 3 INEC offices have been gutted by fire over the last one week. We heard of the killing of over 66 persons in Kaduna. These issues have implications for the election and there is need to address them.”
She therefore called on INEC to use the one week to take care of its logistics and ensure that there was no further shift in the dates as anything to that effect would be seen as a calculated sabotage.
“We call on INEC to use the window of this postponement to get their logistics and operations right as any further postponement may be interpreted by Nigerians as calculated sabotage.
“We also call on all Nigerians to cooperate with INEC and not to be discouraged but come out on the stated dates to cast their votes and defend it.” She said
