The Chairman of Joint Health Workers Union (JOHESU) Rivers Chapter Mr Chris Mbata has called on Journalists to be careful and proactive in carrying out their duties during the 2019 general election for their safety.
Mbata made the call to Newsmen on Tuesday during 2018 Correspondent week with the theme “Promoting Security in 2019 Elections: The Role of the Media” in Port Harcourt.
Mr. Mbata who is also the Chairman on the occasion said that freedom of speech was democracy but where there was no freedom of speech, there was no democracy.
He said that without the media, there would be no democracy.
Mbata called on Journalists to lunch voters education to sensitize the public before, during and after election.
In her speech, Mrs Geraldine Ekelemo,the Public Affairs Officer for Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) tasked journalists to investigate information before giving it out to the public.
She said that one of the challenges faced during the election was late arrival of election materials due to the locations in States.
She said that INEC was putting in place measures to ensure that materials arrive on time and ensure the success of 2019 election.
In his remarks, Mr Precious Elekima, the Governorship candidate of Social Democratic Party(SDP)in Rivers state said that the role of the media was too critical to the democracy of the entire world.
Elekima said that transparency should be one of the roles of the media during 2019 election.
SDP guber candidate said that the media should not be partisan before, during and after election.
He said that the reasons for high level of insecurity during the election in the country was the fear of return to private economy by politicians who hardly ever had gainful employment before having access to politics in 1999 to present times.
“When most citizens did not trust the sincerity of the military and was procrastinating on the end result of it; as a result many jobless people who had no risk of success or failure gained entrance to the world of politics; and very soon realized the benefit of corruption and strategized a means of unleashing terror a a strategy of scaring perceived political opponents and sustaining their hold in political office with easy access to the public treasury for their private plunder.,” he said.
Elekima called on the public not to sell their conscience to leaders who don’t have their interest at heart.
“The only security I think we need in this country is security of conscience.
“The night of brandishing of gun fire by politicians, our security men and hoodlums will not give us the security we need, rather freedom to our conscience to do what is right will give us all the security we need, during and after 2019 election,” Elekima concluded.
